The Filipinos organized a government of their own, wrote their constitution, and established a government with a president, a congress, and a judiciary. While that government already existed in fact,39 Americans were heatedly debating the morality of imperialism. President William McKinley, before a Methodist group, said that on bended knees he prayed to God and realized that the United States through "benevolent assimilation" should take the islands in order "to civilize and Christianize" them. Little did he know that hundreds of years before, friars had introduced Christianity to the islanders whom some Americans perceived as barbarians.40

"Civilize Them with a Krag" was the song of the soldiers who came to impose American rule." The Philippine-American War caused an inordinate amount of dislocation, devastation, and suffering. Torture, massacres, and pillaging occurred. With its similarities to the Vietnam War, the Philippine-American War is sometimes referred to as the "first Vietnam." The war, in American history books officially called the Philippine insurrection, lasted from 1899 to 1901, at which time a civil government was organized.42 Those who continued to resist were called bandits and brigands. Similar to those Filipinos who helped the Spaniards, collaborators cooperated with the new colonizers, once again facilitating the coming of the second wave of colonialists." Although severely restricted, nationalist expression remained. The display of the Philippine flag was banned and advocacy of independence was prohibited during the first years of American occupation, but through theater and music, anti-American feelings were expressed.44

The Americans established a civilian bureaucracy as a response to those reform-minded Filipino elites who wished to participate in government. Their participation dampened nationalist aspirations, and politicians settled for the political power granted then under U.S. rule. Electoral politics was implemented, and political parties were allowed to be organized. In the beginning, there was a Partido Federalista, which aimed at the incorporation of the Philippines into the American Union; however, the party did not gain enough following and was short-lived, whereas the parties who played independence politics survived. All political parties claimed in their public pronouncements that they were for independence while in private some of them seriously feared losing the privileges and advantages they enjoyed with the Philippines as an American colony.45

Filipino participation in governance increased gradually. In 1907 was elected a legislature composed of Filipinos, which served as the lower house. In 1916, the Jones Law provided for a bicameral legislature, with a senate and a house of representatives composed of Filipinos. The courts were also Filipinized; in fact, the Supreme Court of the Philippines was the first branch of government to have a Filipino majority. The Philippines was governed by a governor-general whose vice-governor also occupied the position of secretary of public instruction, a department considered pivotal in the American colonial set up. Before 1916, the Speaker of the Assembly was considered the focus of authority among Filipino politicians. During the Jones Law period, the president of the Senate was the center of power and influence. Manuel L. Quezon, the first Senate president, later became the first president of the Philippine Commonwealth.46

The quest for independence culminated in a commonwealth government inaugurated in 1935 and intended to preside over a ten-year transition toward self-rule, a government for which foreign affairs and defense were to be handled by the United States; however, a Filipino president and legislature were to be elected to assume the functions of government. After more than three decades of colonization, when the commonwealth government was proclaimed, the United States had already significantly affected Philippine political, cultural, and economic life. The Americans established a public system of education and taught the English language. They improved public services and public health but maintained the system of land tenancy.

A system of electoral democracy was introduced to facilitate the elite's co-opting power and to cater to their reformist demands. Robert Pringle, a former U.S. Foreign Service officer in the Philippines, asserted that the creation of American democracy and its assumed benevolence were myths of Philippine-U.S. relations. According to Pringle:

Myth number one is that we created democracy in the Philippines; that our colonialism was more enlightened than European colonialism, both in its motivations and its consequences. In fact, American rule bolstered a preexisting landed elite, encouraging it to express itself through representative forms. The result was perhaps as "democratic" as Mississippi in 1900. The forms were there but the substance was sui generis. Myth number two is that Filipino political leaders struggled for their independence and that we graciously acceded, extending it to them short of revolution, thereby confirming our superiority to other colonists. In fact . . .

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