THE Philippines is commonly considered to have a very Americanized culture and not only in urban centers. US brands are preferred, US Hollywood stars are well-known, US pop music is present everywhere and when thinking of which country to migrate to, the US is the number one choice despite the fact that there are many nations with better life standards.

However, this was not always the case. Anti-Americanism was extremely strong during the US colonial period in the Philippines. Filipino intellectuals, politicians and newspapers talked continuously about the humiliation of not having self-government and criticized the contempt that US officials generally had for Filipinos.