i had some exposure to this when i went to the philippines. my mom was a visiting prof at UP at the time so i kind of studied these folks.

my impression was that they did have legitimate grievances, but their ultimate downfall is that they had no concept of how to make it better. so they focused all their efforts on destabilization but didn't have a plan for progressive change if they were ever successful.

as for the anti-US sentiment? i'll be the first to admit that the US has done many things to other countries that are negative, but the "no to everything US" caused as much harm to the Philippines as good. i also have the suspicion that all of this was insidiously communist-incited...as a holdover from the Cold War :nerves: