afaik, one of the powerful groups where the US embassy/government gets some of its inputs about the performance of philippine goverment is the American Chamber of Commence in the Philippines. It's the association/league of presidents of american companies in the philippines. regularly, these american company presidents gather together and asses/report their company peformance with regards to economic situation in the country. if most of the presidents report that they are not making money in the country....it's safe to assume that the US goverment has to 'plan' what's best to protect the american businesses.