To sum it up, our colonial past and neocolonial present have made the Philippines not only a US military outpost in Southeast Asia but a source of its cheap labor and raw materials, a steady market for its goods and a profitable investment site for its transnational corporations. All these at the expense of national sovereignty and our own development as a modern, self-reliant and industrial economy. No wonder that despite our overly rich natural resources and highly talented, young and growing population, we remain a poor and underdeveloped country, sliding in status from Asia’s number 2 in the 50s to it’s proverbial sick man today.