FDR was against the colonization of the Philippines and had agreed to give it independence on July 4, 1946. What if he did so earlier, before WWII had happened?
Would there still have been a Pacific War?
Resistance have nothing to do with independence. Pacific war will still happen regardless if Philippines participated or not.
Philippines must Industrialized and Militarized. Philippines must be lead and these leaders must make the right decisions regardless if it was the Americans, The OTL defunct Philippine Malolos Republic or any other super power in control of Philippines before WW2.
For those who are misinformed, the Philippine commonwealth government under President Quezon did offer Japan and U.S.A by 1941 neutrality of the Philippines by both USA and Japan withdrawing all their military presence from the Philippines. Japan agreed on such terms, USA did not.
As admitted by the Japanese, they only invaded the Philippines because of American military presence. I would understand why the USA would reject such an offer since there are a lot of military and political consequences of such an agreement. As USA would look like an abusive Philippine colonial master who was freed by the Japanese plus considering that USA will lose bases in the Philippines as well as delaying Japan by putting 300,000 Japan man army during its occupation.
Just imagine where those 300,000 Japanese army would go if it weren't pinned down in the Philippines. Guadacanal? Australia? Hawaii? California?