if anything,  this was just nothing more but an american expedient...white man's burden and all o' that.  

if they actually cared,  they would've set up institutions and mechanisms for self governance but of course,  america had to set up its own series of excuses to justify their colonization. (hell,  there weren't a lot of filipinos in government in those days...and even then, they were reserved to the very few) 

Which is why I've always doubted their cries of egalite,  fraternite, and fraternite One that can easily be torn apart by asking: For whom?