What If...

What if the Philippines never really withdrew from the colonizing hands of the Americas? What if we became the 51^st state of the United States of America? How would our country look now and who would benefit from it?

First of all, if the Americans did not leave the country sixty six years ago, we would still have their military bases planted in the provinces in the North like Tarlac and Pampanga. Philippines will definitely be inhabited by many Americans and probably by other foreign nationals as well. The country would adopt most, if not all, of the policies and the set of laws imposed by the U.S. government on the states in mainland America. With all these at hand, eventually, the term “Filipino” will slowly perish and will become one with the languages that have already gone extinct; and the citizens of the Philippines, will be collectively called by something else.

Philippines will be the “swimming capital” of America with all the pristine beaches running from the northern tip of Luzon to the edge of Mindanao. With the possibility of making a great impact and a loud entrance in the world of tourism, U.S. government would probably develop the Philippines especially the astonishing sites like Amanpulo and Boracay. The Philippines will definitely be a very famous tourist spot to be visited by adventurous tourists who love the beach that are coming from different countries all over the world. Hopefully, preservation and conservation will come alongside the development and changes they would make in the country.

To be a world class tourist spot and since they will be having their military and naval bases here in the Philippines, they would see the need to invest a lot of money to improve the total façade of the country. Roads shall be smoothed out by asphalt; electrical lines shall be underground; wastes shall be properly controlled and minimized; a new airport shall replace the old one; and Philippines, in general, just needs to be improved. After all, the money spent on the enhancement of the total look of the country would be compensated by the profit Philippines would get from tourism.

Aside from being a world class tourist spot, investors would also gain interest in putting up a business in a country run by the United States of America. This, in turn, would provide job opportunities for the citizens of the Philippines and be an aid in developing the country economically. Poverty would diminish in time and concepts such as death rate, birth rate, migration rate, infant mortality, life expectancy, fertility rate, literacy rate and the gross domestic product would improve. If these concepts or factors improve a lot then that would signal the start of the development of the country as a whole and this would mean that Philippines is finally having a step forward towards being a developed country.

These are just some of the benefits Philippines would get from being the 51^st state of USA of the top of my head. Indeed, we will benefit greatly from it and there are many other advantages that can be named; in fact, there are numerous ways the Philippines could benefit from being the 51^st state of USA. But in conjunction with the pros are the cons and one of the bad outcomes Philippines could get from it is the threat of being always attacked by the anti-US terrorists. Since the Philippines is in close proximity and surrounded by the countries like China, Japan and North Korea which are known for being anti-Americanism, the country becomes a great target for these neighboring nations if in case something goes wrong and they would like to spark up a war. These anti-US terrorist movements would love to destroy the military and naval bases of the US in the Philippines just because it is a smaller target and is far from the mainland making it hard for the Americans to respond immediately.

Although we may suffer from threats such as these, it is still undeniable that the Philippines would greatly benefit from being the 51^st state of the United States of America.

But what if we already fought for our independence and gained it sixty six years ago and only thought of the benefits we would get from being the 51^st state of the USA now? How would other Filipinos view this? Would the Americans themselves permit us to be their 51^st state?

From an online discussion, I found out that many Americans would rather not have Philippines as one of their states for a number of reasons. They believe that the bad situation of poverty here in the Philippines would be a very big problem for them and would cost them so much considering the recession currently happening in their country. Also the distance between the mainland USA and the Philippines would be another problem in “Americanizing” the Philippines. They also think that the idea of making the Philippines the 51^st state of the USA is quite impossible since Filipinos are too proud and nationalistic. There was even this ridiculous and quite gibberish response which says that there will be complications involved in uniformly placing 51 stars on the flag.

Overall, if Philippines really wanted to be the 51^st state of the United States of America, then it will call for a petition. Signatures from the Americans would be needed and with the number of negative response on that online discussion alone, it could be concluded that it is highly impossible that the Philippines would be able to collect the needed amount of signatures on time. Besides, many Filipinos also refuse and rebuke this idea; they can see it as a demeaning action and just a product of the colonial mentality most Filipinos have.

With globalization just around the corner, it wouldn’t hurt Philippines to be joining America again. With the state of the world right now, it is very likely that there will be another world war in the coming years and it would be intelligent to join USA and have an alliance with them.

Personally, I would love Philippines to be the 51^st state of America. Not only does it permit me to travel freely and enter different countries without needing visas but it may also be a way to finally alleviate the worsening situation of poverty in the country. Also, faulty rules of our unworthy leaders would be terminated. Despite being the 51^st state, I would still love to preserve the essence of being a Filipino and keep the culture to even influence the other countries to adopt the Filipino culture.

So, what if Philippines became the 51^st state of the United States of America? I guess, it will probably be the same. Only, we are now called the citizens of a group of states under a common government more commonly known as the United States of America.

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