the Philippines was a Spanish colony for four hundred years and an american one for fifty. As such, it is a mixtuer of indigenous, spanish, and american influences. becoming independent in 1946, it Funcioned as an imperfect democracy for twenty years before dictator ferdinand Marcos took over in 1965, ruling. until 1986. marcos was like suharto: an authoritarian leader governinng a development under marcos, but it was sporadic and uneven, often diverted to Marcos' family members, and noehere near the level of the East Asian tigers. Although blessed with abundant natural resources, the philippines, like indonesia, has been unable to organize them effciently as part of a conerent indonesian, is not oriented toward the same disciplined, organized, hard-driving developmental goals as are the East asian tigers