As a Roman Catholic, I also agree that that faith supersedes all else. Faith should be first in life, but it is not a panacea for all of life's challenges.
today the Philippines bears little resemblance to the United States.
I would disagree, it bears a good deal of resemblance to the US. They may be ahead of us in the faith department, but don't sell the US short. Contrary to what you see in the MSM, liberals that worship "mother earth" are a very small minority here. It was never the intention of the US to make the Philippines into a carbon copy of the US or a US state for that matter. The Philippines today is a dynamic republic that practices democracy pretty well. It has a well developed education system, a vibrant economy, and very little socialism. The US certainly deserves some credit for this. The Philippines is still a trusted ally and the US is still respected there.
“Contrary to what you see in the MSM, liberals that worship “mother earth” are a very small minority here.”
Whatever you want to call them, we have a lot of people that support legalized abortion, and a significant number (though not near a majority) that support “gay marriage”. Some would kindly say they worship mother earth; others would rightly say they worship the Devil. Whether you want to connect it to faith or not, the American family has been under assault (successfully) for decades; I don’t see this antipathy in Filipinos.