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Not until the deed was done did the shortcomings of the great experiment become clear. For all the tremendous good it had wrought, U.S. rule had recognized old Spanish land grants, many of them dubious, which gave a few favored families a stranglehold. Free trade with the U.S. had given the Philippines the bloom of apparent health, but it was a hectic flush: the islands were not prepared to stand on their own economic feet. The sugar kings and wealthy traders had prospered, but thousands of tenant farmers were left in discontented peonage. The seed of freedom had sprouted, but the soil of order on which freedom must grow had been neglected. Above all, in setting a target date for independence so far in advance, the U.S. had not reckoned on World War II.
To Deceive Was Patriotic. When the promised Independence Day came, on July 4, 1946, the Philippines were one great wound of war. Manila was more than 50% destroyed. Everywhere schools, factories, plantations were in ruins.
There was hardly a Filipino family that had not lost at least one member in the war. Three years of Japanese occupation had changed the moral climate of the country. It became necessary and patriotic to cheat, deceive, rob, even kill. The strongest Filipino leaders (e.g., Manuel Quezon) had died. But the U.S., and Filipino politicians, had gone too far to turn back on a promise. So the happy day of independence came.
Washington helped the infant republic with war damage dollars, war surplus, ECA bequests, RFC loans, millions in back pay to Filipino soldiers and guerrillas. Altogether the U.S., in six years, put $2 billion into the Philippines. But the money flowed in without proper planning, or proper safeguards. Instead of going into the mouths or onto the backs of Filipinos, U.S. surplus and relief goods slid from one speculator and profiteer to another. It was a poor trader who could not triple or quadruple his investment in pencils, tractors or derricks.
The rich got richer and the poor got poorer. Wages for common laborers in Manila stayed at $1 to $3 a day, while the cost of living rose to a point almost three times that of Chicago. In the provinces, landlords continued to take 70% of the crops for themselves, getting interest of 100% to 200% on loans to tenants who were already so deeply in debt that their grandsons would not own enough land to live on or a carabao to plow it.
The American Way. In a democracy, representatives are representative; and the Philippine Congress inhaled the general air of corruption. House Speaker Eugenio Perez, boss of the Liberal Party, became chief of the spoils system. Party funds, for which no accounting is required, are in his keeping. To win votes, he has at his disposal precious Chinese immigration visas to distribute among his congressional colleagues, each of them worth $2,000 to $3,000 at the nearest cafe. When the Commissioner of Customs recently tried to cut expenses by firing 180 excess employees, he was bombarded into retreat by the protests of Congressmen. For importers, heavy tips to customs agents are a necessity. In their eager study of U.S. institutions, Filipino politicos had learned from Hague and Pendergast, as well as from Madison and Jefferson.