Ex President Clinton visited the country this month, not his first time. I don't really have a lot of opinion on him. I was only in grade school when he was president of the US. But this time he left an impression.

 In one of the press conferences in Manila, someone asked:

You’ve been a long-time observer of the Philippines. You know first-hand each Filipino’sability and potential. Why do you think our nation hasn’t yet, after People Power, after everything we’ve gone through, why haven’t we been able to fulfill that potential?”

Wow. I was only watching this on the news but I could feel the tension in that room. His reply:

On the whole it wasn’t a good advantage for the nation to have been colonized, if you will, by Spain and the United States. . .”

America's colonization of the Philippines is not something you'd read on everyday history textbooks. Even in ours. It's like someone, somebody, does not want us to realize that we have been colonized not just by the Spaniards. What we do read on our textbooks is that America HELPED us after the Spanish colonization and  after WWII. We were told we owe a lot to the US. The Americans taught us English. We are the only english speaking nation in the SouthEast Asian region. English is our second language.  The US bought the TV, Radio, Coca Cola, and taught us basketball, which is the nation's number one sports.

In college, when we were asked to research about the US-Philippine War, we were astounded that it was way bloodier than WWII when the Japanese were here. There's actually a new film that came out, directed by James Sayles, which depicted this war. I have not checked it out myself and do not know if it is historically accurate but our local historians are pretty much happy with the film.

I was very impressed with Mr. Clinton's response. The question was off mark but he answered it the best way possible. If you have watched the press conference, you could sense that he really thought his answers over. 

The US and Philippines relationship may be what you describe as "stifling" but it is refreshing to hear that kind of answer from a former president of a superpower nation.