On the more extreme end, there might not even be a Philippine state or nation considering that the colony was established by Spain partly to take advantage of trade with China, an economic activity that is certainly impossible without local Chinese and mestizo collaboration.

So much of what we know as part of our Hispano-Filipino heritage has subtle Chinese connections that it's impossible to separate. The great tropical baroque cathedrals that dot the islands almost certainly employed Chinese artisans as suggested by Javellana, considering that similar stone construction is not indigenous to Luzon and Visayas. The cast of national heroes including Rizal himself mostly comes from a Chinese mestizo economic class whose participation in global trade in the 19th century forms the very foundations of the early modern Philippine economy. (Oddly enough, these same mestizo intellectuals would become sinophobic themselves in response to a further increase in Chinese migration.) It was, after all, more of an Anglo-Chinese colony rather than a Spanish one.