ONCE considered an unstable, corrupt country dependent on the US, whose leaders and their wives accumulated vast wealth and hundreds of pairs of shoes, the Philippines is suddenly beginning to look like the new tiger among the Pacific economics.
The arrival in the capital Manila this weekend of 18 world leaders for the annual Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) summit is being treated by the Philippine government as a coming-out event, an opportunity to show that it is a serious country, able to stand on its own feet.
The departure of the US forces in 1992, on which the Philippines depended to sustain its economy, brought about the reforms which made this nation of 7,107 islands the fastest-moving Asian economy this year, with a growth rate of over 7 per cent.
When the American base at Subic Bay closed down in November 1992, the jobs of 47,000 people disappeared overnight.
Their departure coincided with the election as President of Fidel Ramos, a Protestant in a largely Catholic country, who, after the first really democratic elections in two decades, brought some Calvinistic discipline into the economy.
Gen Ramos appointed a cabinet of experts, encouraged free enterprise and overseas investment and ruthlessly tackled the one problem which deterred investors, the electricity brown-outs that left urban districts in the dark and people stranded in elevators. Top officials were booted out of the National Power Corporation and the lights now stay on.
As a former defence minister, who protected his predecessor, Ms Cory Aquino, from seven attempted coups, Gen Ramos signed peace agreements with the military rebels and Muslim secessionists in the southern Philippines, and lifted the 1957 ban on the Communist Party to ease ideological tensions.
In the rural strongholds of the communist rebels, farmers are being encouraged to trade with each other and set up village funds' so that they do not have to borrow from the big landowners. For the first time peasants are able to see benefits coming from non-violent revolution.
The country has opened up to information technology and earlier media censorship has given way to a free and lively press, with 20 English-language daily newspapers. English is widely spoken and, like Ireland, the country has a well-educated, English-speaking workforce, which helps attract international investors.
On the departure of the Americans, Mr Richard Gordon, the mayor of Olongapo, erected a 40ft by 20ft Philippine flag, the largest ever, over the former base of the US Seventh Fleet and created the Subic Bay Freeport. This now has 234 multinational companies employing 55,000 workers.
Where there were 16,000 prostitutes working the bars 10 years ago, today there are only about 500. Many of these call girls have become a symbol of the ending off the shameful old ways by undergoing training by volunteers to run small businesses.
Subic Bay was chosen for the site of the APEC summit meeting because "it showcases the new character of the Philippines, untainted by criminality, graft and corruption," boasted Mr Gordon. "The new Filipino is confident, hard-working, global."
Its success marks the first real break with the psychology of dependency in a country which did not become independent until. 1946 and since then has been overwhelmed by American fast food and entertainment culture.
President Ramos has refocused on Asia, opened the economy and begun loosening the corrupt, monopolistic grip of the cronies of the former president, Ferdinand Marcos, who ruled from 1965 to 1986. One of the features of the new Philippines is the number of new businesses, set up by entrepreneurs no longer afraid of the big monopolies, and catering to a growing middle class.
Most of the country's 68 million people are still desperately poor.
The gross national product per head is just over $1,000 (£592), a quarter that of Mexico and a twelfth of neighbouring Taiwan. Crime is rampant and law and order is maintained - as visitors to the APEC ministerial convention centre in Manila can readily see by thousands of armed security guards and police bearing shotguns and automatic weapons.
But the days of the coup around the corner have gone, officials say. As evidence of a new spirit of self-discipline, hotel workers on Thursday signed a memorandum with the Labour Secretary, Mr Leonardo Quisumbing, not to strike for seven days, so delegates representing 40 per cent of the world's population will not get a bad impression of the new Philippines.
. The United States yesterday warned Americans gathering for the Asia-Pacific summit they may be under threat of terrorist attack.
Philippine security sources said police had reported "strong indications" a leftist hit squad would launch terror attacks to disrupt the summit. (Reuter)