e Philippine economy was undoubtingly significant. The US military spent over $500 million a year in the country on salaries, the purchase of supplies and services, and other military and economic aid given to the Philippine government. One estimate claimed that the total amount of economic contribution amounted to as much as US$ 1 billion annually . In March of 1987 the Philippine News reported that the bases employed 23,168 full-time workers, 22,834 contract workers, and 444 concessionaires for a total of 46,446 Filipinos with annual salaries totaling $96 million . The US Information Service claimed that, “The U.S. facilities create a great deal of indirect employment by doing business with Philippine companies – over 900 had contracts with the bases in 1985….” The Bases seemed to be pumping in millions of U.S dollars into an impoverished economy.Yet these figures can be quite misleading. Direct Filipino employment on the U.S. bases only amounted to some 5% of the total 1.18 million Filipinos employed by the Philippine government at that time . Patricia A. Paez calculated that the bases only actually employed less than 1% of the total Philippine “non-agriculture workforce” . These statistics make the U.S. claim that it was the largest employer in the country, apart from the Philippine government, appear rather weak. Furthermore, the Philippines’ Jose W. Diokno Foundation (named after a well known Filipino nationalist) makes the point that bases’ contribution to the Philippine economy was actually consumption of “commodity items” and not “capital investment”. “The bulk of base contribution are spent on labor – both legitimate labor and labor for entertainment purposes. Thus Filipino men, women and Children are transformed into commodity items” . In effect, base contributions did not actually assist in development of the Philippine eco...
