Manila Prepares for Independence

Drawing from U.S. and Philippine archives, this chapter places Filipina/o advocates in conversation with Filipina/o Americans and their allies in the 1940s campaign to pass a Philippine citizenship bill. Philippine officials took up the legislative cause in order to prepare for what they feared would be the catastrophic financial costs of national independence from U.S. colonial rule. They hoped to cultivate Filipina/o Americans as a reliable source of remittances and other support sent from the United States to the islands. Manila’s role in the Washington-based naturalization campaign thus exemplified Philippine officials’ instrumental understanding of the U.S. citizenship bill as a means to achieve their own national goals. It also reflected their flexible view of national citizenship. Through their support of naturalization rights, Manila officials sought to inculcate in Filipina/o Americans a sense of responsibility to the islands that transcended a formal legal status alone. Viewed from Asia, then, Manila’s campaigning for the Luce-Celler bill can be seen as an act of Philippine state-building intended to safeguard and promote the islands’ economic welfare and stability after independence.