Dissin' Isabella's Memory

Kind of interesting:

The Mississippian took me to meet a local Filipino business magnate and former Interpol officer who helped ODA-145 with information here and there. He had an estate and target range by the wtaer where we fired off 9mm and 5.56mm rounds for an hour. This man could afford to look somewhat frail and soft-spoken, I thought, because of the blatancy of his wealth and power. "Why was the Philippines such a corrupt place?" I asked him. He responded in a bored manner with a challenge: "Name a place in the world where the Spanish have been for a long time that is well governed." He added: "Marcos solved the problem of a weak state by creating a huge army. Now the army is such a danger that only a military man can control it and modernize it.

From Robert Kaplan, Imperial Grunts, p. 160.