Philippines

we weren’t ready for it yet. Filipinos didn’t understand what it meant and our politicos are too corrupt.

Do note that America's rhetoric of "granting us independence when we're ready enough" was mostly rhetoric. If they wanted us to be independent they wouldn't have done economic policies that made the Philippines dependent on the USA, policies passed only if it was of benefit to the USA, as well as the fact that they didn't return the land that was unlawfully grabbed by the Spaniards during a certain period of time and instead just appropriated it for themselves despite promises that they would divide it among the wronged parties (of tenants, who had owned the land), for the ready exploitation of Filipinos for American corporations.

Seriously, it is more laughable to defend colonialism perpetuated by a democratic nation, because the leaders would have to justify that it was beneficial, first and foremost, to their own people, else they become unpopular and won't hold any position of power.

It was an act of colonialism for the sake of economic interests. And the reason why there was such a culture of corruption was because the way you survived in the colonial world (as a principalia) was to kiss up the asses of who will benefit you the most. Either it was the colonial overlords when you felt they were the safer bet or if you felt like a revolution was successful, the angry masses. To thrive you shouldn't be loyal, only to that who would benefit you the most.

The colonial system of the Philippines perpetuated by the Spaniards themselves were notoriously corrupt, probably because of the distance between nations making laws hard to enforce, that the colonisers present in the country often broke the law even against the King's commands, hell, even against the Pope's. And did our period under American Colonialism helped us unlearn that culture? No, Filipinos were given a sense of Learned Helplessness, and a peculiar tendency to give apologetics for the practice of Colonialism.