Lessons from the Philippines: Building trust, meeting needs

COMMENTARY: I spent a year in the Philippines serving as the legal advisor to the Joint Special Operations Task Force–Philippines (JSOTF-P). Supporting the special operations community was a professional highlight because it revealed America’s ability to strengthen communities and build trust when efforts center on people. That experience left a lasting impression: when presence, partnership, and practical improvements align, they build trust and deliver outcomes that last.

During that time, I served alongside my friend Herb Daniels, whose “Outhouse Strategy,” a counterinsurgency paper emphasizing the impact of small, practical projects to meet basic needs, remains one of the clearest examples of this truth. In Jolo, the projects that mattered most were those that helped people meet their foundational needs. A simple effort to improve health and hygiene built trust, expanded access, and paved the way for deeper collaboration. The same holds true today: lasting efforts begin with people — and endure when their foundational needs are met in ways that strengthen communities.

The outhouse strategy in Jolo

When U.S. and Philippine forces sought to improve life in Jolo, a remote island province in the southern Philippines long affected by poverty and insurgency, the first instinct leaned toward large, highly visible projects. Big new schools, large community centers, and computer labs looked impressive, yet they did little to shape daily life. Built with outside contractors and imported materials, these projects often bypassed local labor and overlooked urgent priorities.

The outhouse offered a different approach. Humble as it was, this modest project met an essential need—sanitation—and delivered daily value. Just as important, it was built with local labor and local resources, placing Philippine and U.S. forces in the center of village life. Word spread quickly, and neighboring communities began requesting their own.

An outhouse, unassuming as it was, had a greater impact than grander facilities because it touched people’s daily lives, met their foundational needs, and involved them directly. Those qualities strengthened trust, deepened partnership, and set the conditions for modernization, security, and resilience.

Proof in practice

Herb’s “Outhouse Strategy” reflected a broader truth. Years later, RAND, a nonpartisan research organization, studied U.S. special operations in the Philippines and reached the same conclusion: the efforts that mattered most were the small ones that improved daily life. A few outhouses and access to clean water did more to strengthen communities and constrain insurgent influence than the grandest community centers.

RAND’s analysis highlighted how JSOTF-P earned credibility through “low-cost, high-impact” projects — sanitation, water, small schools, and clinics. These weren’t symbolic gestures; they were practical improvements people felt every day. They strengthened trust, opened doors, and created space for partnership.

Trust grows when leaders show up where people live and the basics work — clean water, healthy kids, and power that stays on. hat foundation is what makes modernization, security, and resilience possible.

From villages to nations

The same lesson carries forward. In Jolo, the project that endured was the simplest one — an outhouse, modest in design, practical, and local, built to meet people’s foundational needs. What began in a single village demonstrated a principle that applies at every level: progress lasts when it starts with the basics.

Today, America is investing in its own foundations, and the principle is the same: the basics come first.

These are the essentials families count on every day. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is funding tens of thousands of projects to modernize grids, roads, water systems, and broadband. That investment is overdue and vital. And just as in Jolo, the measure of success is simple: families feel the basics working — the tap runs, the lights stay on, the connection holds. Meeting foundational needs is the center of gravity for modernization, security, and resilience.

Trust takes root

Trust grows when the basics work where people live: safe water to drink, power that holds through storms, and roads and networks that keep families and goods moving. When these everyday realities are met, people place their trust in leaders. With trust comes influence, and with influence, leadership that lasts. Herb’s outhouse story in Jolo illustrates the principle: trust deepens when foundational needs are met in ways people can see and feel every day.

Today, the stakes are higher. America’s future depends on water systems that deliver, power that holds, and networks that connect. These systems are the foundation of daily life and the clearest measure of whether investments succeed.

America is in the midst of a once-in-a-generation effort to modernize the systems people rely on. Money and projects matter, but leadership is measured in daily life — whether families feel the difference at the tap, the switch, and the connection. That is where trust takes root, and where leadership earns its strength.

Meeting foundational needs requires leaders who show up in communities, listen closely, and put people at the center of every effort. When that happens, investments do more than build bridges and grids — they build trust, extend influence, and create leadership that endures.

At ICIT, our mission is to keep people at the center of that work. Modernization, security, and resilience begin where trust takes root — with people, with communities, and with the basics that make everything else possible. From a village in Jolo to communities across America, the measure is the same: leadership begins with trust, and trust begins with the basics.