hi! check out this recent post: it contains a quick summary and links to several most posts that discuss statehood wrt the Philippines, Hawai'i, Alaska and Puerto Rico

• Why did Alaska and Hawaii become states but the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and the other Pacific islands did not?

You might find this paper from Cornell worth reading.. I cannot speak to statehood specifically, but it is widely believed that the sugar lobby in the United States had a great deal to do with Filipino independence.

From Page 1:

Most accounts of Philippine independence hold that efforts of the U.S. sugar industry played a decisive role in securing congressional support for decolonization. Facing competition from inexpensive Philippine cane sugar which competed directly with domestically-produced beet sugar, the sugar lobby organized a proindependence legislative coalition which paired independence for the Philippines with tariffs on Philippines’ exports.

From Page 3:

Two factors set the Philippines apart from Puerto Rico and Hawaii: the ownership structure of cane production and the territories’ broader export profiles. Philippine cane sugar was produced on relatively small, dispersed, and locally-owned plantations, whereas it was produced on a smaller number of large, U.S.-owned plantations in Puerto Rico and Hawaii. This industrial structure facilitated political organization and mobilization by American sugar interests Puerto Rico and Hawaii, whereas in the Philippines a similarly organized and concentrated pressure group keen on retaining access to U.S. markets was absent from the political discussion surrounding the prospect of independence. Moreover, sugar beet producers in the United States had natural allies in agricultural sectors that faced stiff competition from the Philippines’ other main export crop, copra. Coconut oil, refined from copra, is a superior substitute for vegetable oils like cottonseed and soybean oil in baked goods, margarine, soaps, and other products. The monocrop export economies of Hawaii and Puerto Rico produced no other products that competed on a broad scale with any U.S. products

Note: This is my first time posting on this sub other than on threads about careers for history degree holders. My apologies in advance if I am not following proper formatting, style or subreddit rules...

Because a state must vote itself a candidate, so you should be looking at Philippine interest in becoming a state rather than U.S. interest in the Philippines becoming a state.

Prior to the Spanish-American War, Theodore Roosevelt expressed, in a private letter to Alfred Mahon, his desire to become first civil governor of the Philippines. Roosevelt had earlier written a naval history of the War of 1812. Interestingly, however, Roosevelt later lost interest in the islands, even going so far as to insist on installing a profoundly unqualified recent college graduate, Beekman Winthrop, on the Philippine Commission. There are multiple possible explanations for Roosevelt's inconsistency. His letters reveal that he was under pressure from Catholics to settle the Friar's land controversy. The United States was attempting to purchase land in the Philippines belonging to the Catholic church. The sale eventually went through. But by far the most viable reason Roosevelt cooled on the Philippines was the criticism the occupation continued to generate regarding torture and mistreatment of Filipinos by the U.S. military. Roosevelt was always highly sensitive to criticism, especially when it originated among his former friends, among whom was Henry Adams and his brother Charles. But TR's growing indifference was checked by the heroic actions of William H. Taft, later US president and chief justice of the US supreme court. Taft defied Roosevelt's intentions on multiple occasions. I will mention two: first, Taft refused to acquiesce when Roosevelt insisted he return to the US to take a seat on the supreme court. Second, and perhaps more significant, Taft directly undermined the president's intention to appoint Mr. Winthrop (later governor of Puerto Rico) by convincing Winthrop to reject the president's (already accepted) offer. Winthrop instead became Taft's personal secretary. Taft continued, as Roosevelt's secretary of war and his successor to the presidency, to defend and assert the nation's interest in the Philippines. Eventually, however, Roosevelt's point of view prevailed. Importantly, Taft's persistent efforts to afford the Philippines special trade status were continuously wrecked by domestic political opposition. Taft also famously supported a free-trade agreement with Canada, only to have the Canadians switch course.

Roosevelt's vacillations are a good measure of the political winds working against consistent and steady support for solidifying McKinley's (and Taft's) Philippine policy.

Also, it is interesting to note that while the Teller Amendment effectively barred the US from 'colonizing' Cuba, no such restriction applied to the Philippines. But, of course, the Filipinos were not to keen on replacing their Spanish masters with American ones. Thus, the occupation had, since its outset, been resisted by Filipino militias.

I think the population is the problem. How can you incorporate and provide equivalent social and economic infrastructure to 100 million people? Not to mention it would instantly be your biggest state and have more than 1/3 of the entire American population.