You should look into the Philippine-American War (1899-1901), which was sort of mixed up with the Spanish-American War (1898-1899). The result of it was that America basically grabbed the Philippines as a colony and ran it as a colony until 1937, I think. That meant that there were many Americans in the Philippines from the beginning of the 20th century. Some of the early ones had been soldiers and remained there, either in official governmental roles (including army and police) or as small businessmen. Others went there later as the backcountry was purged of guerillas and the country became more amenable to commercial ventures.
With good wishes, Lee