In 1898, during the Spanish-American War, the independence movement in the Philippines  fought on the side of the Americans. When the Spanish were defeated, General Aguinaldo declared the Philippines independent. The USA had different plans and bought the islands from the Spanish for US$ 20 million.
In 1942 Japan invaded the Philippines. The Japanese ruled and raped the country for two years until the USA returned. The Philippines received full independence in 1946.

Ferdinand Marcos was elected as president in 1965, declared martial law in 1972 and ruled virtually as a dictator until 1986. His regime was attacked by both communist and Muslim guerrillas, and he was accused of corruption and fraud. The assassination of prominent opposition figure Benigno Aquino in 1983 started massive anti-government protests. In February 1986 the USA stopped supporting Ferdinand Marcos and during the "EDSA Revolution" he was forced to flee the country. Since he took a lot of money with him, the USA gave him shelter.

Corazon Aquino, the widow of Benigno, tried to re-establish the democratic institutions of the country. As a member of the Filipino elite (a few rich families control and rule the country until today) she couldn't or didn't want to fight corruption and fraud.
In 1991 the USA closed their military bases in the Philippines, following the Mt Pinatubo eruption which destroyed the US Clark Air Base.  Aquino survived seven coups in six years and was succeeded by her Defense Minister Fidel Ramos in 1992.
Ramos started to revitalize the economy, attract foreign investment and fight corruption.
The Philippines government and the Moro National Liberation Front signed a peace accord in September 1996 ending, formally at least, the MNLF's 24-year struggle for autonomy in Mindanao.
In 1998, Ramos was replaced by his vice-president, Joseph Estrada. Estrada, a former movie star elected mainly because of his popularity of his "love and crime" movies,  than because of any political experience, promised a lot, especially to the poor. However, he was too busy to fill his own pockets. Therefore he was impeached and brought to trial in late 2000 on charges of taking bribes from gambling syndicates, and using the proceeds to line his own dens and to build extravagant houses for his mistresses. When Estrada and his political allies tried to derail the trial by blocking prosecutors' access to his financial accounts, the people decided they'd had enough and staged mass demonstrations in the streets of Manila.
On 19 January 2001 (still during the impeachment trial)  his former vice-president, Gloria Arroyo, was sworn in as the new president of the Philippines. In her first speech which must have sounded very familiar to the people of the Philippines, Arroyo promised to wipe out poverty and corruption.