There might not have been an insurgency. American rule brought a ton of development to the PI. After independence, the native government's nationalizations of various economic sectors probably brought an end to that. Like a lot of other less-developed democratic countries, the Philippines is run like a feudal state, with a revolving caste of aristocrats who are granted local oligopolies in business sectors (via legal and regulatory impediments to new entrants), to the detriment of overall economic development. Unlike Afghanistan and Iraq, the Philippines was ruled by Americans. It was fairly well-off at independence, relative to its neighbors. Now it's among the poorest in Southeast Asia (i.e. the East Asian countries below China), ahead only of Burma (the hermit state) and the communist-in-name-only countries of Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.
We had well-off Philippine neighbors who boasted that, after their retirement, they would have a house built for them in the PH where they would live like kings complete with servants.
I have never liked people who take advantage of the less fortunate and then boast about it.
If you want to be a prick, shut up about it.