Possible Filipino Statehood?

Mr. BoJangles · May 27, 2013

Being in South Korea has given me some new insight. Many of the locals are Filipinos. And of them, the vast majority of them are under a consensus that statehood would be better for the Philippines as a whole. I also just saw a single video on youtube where it would appear that most young people in the Philippines would prefer statehood over independence.

Let us imagine for a moment that a Referendum comes in 2015 for the Philippines to apply for statehood. Should that referendum pass, what challenges await the new state? How would senatorial representation be accounted for? Would the number of seated US representatives increase? What of the Filipino State constitution? What changes would need to be made to it for statehood to be accepted? What of the US constitution? Would it need to be amended in order to accommodate the Philippines?

Joseph Solis in Australia · May 27, 2013

Philippine statehood is as good as any ASB scenarios as the United States and the American people don't want to have their economy totally bankrupt to subsidize our country's economy to be in par with the rest of the United States.

China would not like to have US Navy patrolling their territorial borders in the South China Sea to protect the Philippine US State.

MerryPrankster · May 27, 2013

I think it'd be more realistic to have the "Insular Cases" got the other way so the Constitution follows the flag and the U.S. can't legally treat the Philippines as a colony.

This means the U.S. lets the Philippines go or makes the islands a U.S. state (or states).

iori · May 27, 2013

Should'nt this be in Future History or ASB?

Anyways I sincerely doubt that the majority of Filipinos would vote to join the United States, but even if they did their's no way Congress would agree to accept it and thus the vote would be meaningless.

Mr. BoJangles · May 27, 2013

Joseph Solis in Australia said:
Philippine statehood is as good as any ASB scenarios as the United States and the American people don't want to have their economy totally bankrupt to subsidize our country's economy to be in par with the rest of the United States.

China would not like to have US Navy patrolling their territorial borders in the South China Sea to protect the Philippine US State.

Setting aside the ASB-ness of the scenario coming to pass, as well as the issues with China, I turn to the one point of your argument that is relevant to the topic:

Would subsidization be necessary? Having never been the the Philippines myself, I can't imagine the scenario being that bad. Maybe you could provide a bit of insight?

MerryPrankster said:
I think it'd be more realistic to have the "Insular Cases" got the other way so the Constitution follows the flag and the U.S. can't legally treat the Philippines as a colony.

This means the U.S. lets the Philippines go or makes the islands a U.S. state (or states).

Again, this is less about what would take for it to happen, and more about what challenges come as a result of it happening.

Tallest Skil · May 27, 2013

As a American, I think we never should have taken the Philippines off the path to statehood and would welcome them into the fold with open arms at any point in the future.

Provided they're okay with splitting into seven states, of course. I mean, we're increasing our population by a full third, for heaven's sake; they need proper representation. We don't need three uber-Californias.

Joseph Solis in Australia said:
…the American people don't want to have their economy totally bankrupt to subsidize our country's economy to be in par with the rest of the United States.

Who says that would even happen? Who says it wouldn't be a boon to both sides? It certainly would be a boon.

China would not like to have US Navy patrolling their territorial borders in the South China Sea to protect the Philippine US State.

Too bad.

brokenman · May 27, 2013

There hasn't been a significant lobby for US statehood in the Philippines since the First Commonwealth. If you want to have a PoD, you must go way back when the US first got the Philippines.

Alien and Sedition Bat · May 27, 2013

Send someone other than TR's crony Leonard Wood to run the Philippine government during the Aguinaldo insurgency, and somehow butterfly away the massive war crimes committed by U.S. forces during that conflict.

MarshalBraginsky · May 27, 2013

There's also the issue of Dean Worchester who demonized Filipinos as savages, thereby killing the possibility of Filipino nationhood. Statehood wise, it also affects the process.

Personally, I don't want my home country to become a part of the US.

Superman · May 27, 2013

MarshalBraginsky said:
There's also the issue of Dean Worchester who demonized Filipinos as savages, thereby killing the possibility of Filipino nationhood. Statehood wise, it also affects the process.

Personally, I don't want my home country to become a part of the US.

"Alyaska"? It's a little late for that, don't you think?

Tallest Skil · May 27, 2013

Superman said:
"Alyaska"? It's a little late for that, don't you think?

The implication being that he was born in the Philippines and has since moved to Alaska (deciding to spell it wrong).

Superman · May 27, 2013

Tallest Skil said:
The implication being that he was born in the Philippines and has since moved to Alaska (deciding to spell it wrong).

Yeah, I know what he meant. I just decided to have a little fun.

Mr. BoJangles · May 27, 2013

T.Skil mentioned that it should be split into seven states. My question is why it couldn't be maintinaed as a single entity? Currently we have 435 voting members of the House. With a population of nearly 100 million, bringing the total to 500 voting members, or 525 voting members, wouldn't be too much of a stretch?

And maintaining it as a single state would require a US constitutional amendment on behalf of the Philippines, allowing the Philippines as a state to hold more voting Senatorial seats than any other state. This would be a nice compromise between the 2 seats from a single state, and the 14 seats you proposed as seven states. In this case, give the Philippines, no more than 8 voting seats (likely to be six to sit in line with the voting cycles), as well as a few non-voting seats. Six senators would give the Philippines decent Senatorial Representation, whilst not over-powering the Filipino Vote. It would make for a rather interesting dynamic within the Philippines.

Again, this is merely a discussion on possible challenges and a way for board members to come up with proposals that would be satisfactory to all sides.

Tallest Skil · May 27, 2013

Mr. BoJangles said:
My question is why it couldn't be maintained as a single entity?

Two senators for 100,000,000 people.

NO.

All created equal.

And maintaining it as a single state would require a US constitutional amendment on behalf of the Philippines, allowing the Philippines as a state to hold more voting Senatorial seats than any other state.

That's why it's totally stupid. Why would you do that when you can do the sane and logical thing of making it multiple states?

Again, this is merely a discussion on possible challenges and a way for board members to come up with proposals that would be satisfactory to all sides.

What's wrong with giving them the same treatment as every other state?

Anaxagoras · May 27, 2013

Mr. BoJangles said:
Being in South Korea has given me some new insight. Many of the locals are Filipinos. And of them, the vast majority of them are under a consensus that statehood would be better for the Philippines as a whole. I also just saw a single video on youtube where it would appear that most young people in the Philippines would prefer statehood over independence.

You'll have to provide a bit more evidence than that. I find it extremely unlikely that the "vast majority" of Filipinos want to become part of the United States.

MerryPrankster · May 27, 2013

Anaxagoras said:
You'll have to provide a bit more evidence than that. I find it extremely unlikely that the "vast majority" of Filipinos want to become part of the United States.

Seconded. The opinions of a group of Filipinos working in South Korea may not be representative of Filipinos as a whole, especially if they had other reasons besides work to go abroad (i.e. they didn't like their home country).

Hominid · May 27, 2013

Imagine if all of the Philippines were one state. It would be the only place presidential candidates ever campaign.

oshron · May 27, 2013

Tallest Skil said:
Two senators for 100,000,000 people.

NO.

All created equal.

the simple solution here would be to make more than one Philippine state. Luzon is home to about 48,500,000 people, Visayas has about 11 million, and Mindanao has about 22 million. admittedly, this means that Luzon would still be the most populous state in the Union, but only by 10 million more than California is IOTL, while Visayas and Mindanao would have similar populations to Ohio and New York, respectively. and that's not even accounting for butterflies which may affect diaspora and result in a higher Filipino population in the continental US; at the earliest, this POD would come up around the turn of the 20th century, so that's plenty of time for other butterflies to affect the Philippines and the people who live there

Tallest Skil · May 27, 2013

oshron said:
the simple solution here would be to make more than one Philippine state.

I still say 5 to 7.

Hominid · May 27, 2013

If the POD took place in the early 20th century, the Philippines might have worked as a single state.