But I like this line from one of your links
"For the Philippines, it's better to be bigger by becoming a member of the United States than being a beggar by remaining a member of the United Nations."
But about Statehood, The Philppines have a population of 86,241,697, So if they ever did become a state they would get ~¼ of the Seats in the House of Representives, So I don't think we would go along with it.
We would have to split them up into three or four states, IMHO.
The Filipinos already have an American territory, anyway. It's called Guam. Why would we give them 1/4 of the Congress in exchange for territory we would have to stretch like hell to defend and 80 million more poor people that would be begging for federal aid?
Yeah, what a deal that would be, where do we sign? /sarcasm