War Games See Clark's Resurgence as Base Town
The Philippine Daily Inquirer
(January 20, 2000)
ANGELES CITY-Once dubbed as Asia's base town, this city is haunted by the gold or ghost of its past.
The city that thrived on the needs of the former Clark Air Base and rose against the tragedy of hosting it will again play host to some 2,000 American troops who, will participate in the first of eight war games this year.
With the "pagbabalik ng mga 'Merkano (return of the Americans)," as one prostitute on Fields Avenue here put it with spunk, three ironies come to fold.
The 20th century saw the rise, boom and "liberation" or fall of Angeles by virtue of nature's upheaval (Mt. Pinatubo eruption in 1991) nationalism's triumph (Senate's rejection on Sept. 16, 1991 of the RP-US Military Bases Agreement).
The end of the century saw Angeles' development, also on military leftovers.
Clark's conversion from being the biggest US military facility in the Asia-Pacific region to being the country's biggest economic zone took off from the aviation complex, barracks, roads, communication network, office equipment and an underground petroleum pipeline that extends all the way to Olongapo City, site of the former Subic Naval Base.
This year, amid a new reality the base shut, the Pinatubo disaster almost over, the ecozone in place and the joint war games scheduled next month -- there's one query worth reasking.
The late Renato "Katoks" Tayag, former Philippine National Bank director and Angeles chronicler, in his book "Recollections and Digressions," asked in 1968: "Do we like American soldiers? What to do with them?"
We make the best of the situation, was Tayag's answer.
It still seems to be the answer these days.
Prostitution
Some 300 bars, hotels, massace parlors and merchandise shops that span two kilometers on Fields Avenue were the first to announce their "open arms" acceptance.
At Fields, nobody opposed the Visiting Forces Agreement when it was being deliberated in the Senate. Here, the mood was one of exuberance when the Senate approved the VFA in May last year.
Where the American troops retreated for "good time" when they were stationed in Clark for duty or for the regular war exercises retreated, the VFA, according to feminist activists, meant "Visiting F--king Americans."
And when they do, that meant more beers, more food, more women, and more money.
On Friday last week, or five days after the news of troops' arrival hit the headlines, Fields Avenue began undergoing a facelift.
It was an overreaction because the American soldiers would be using, as police said, only three hotels.
Women's groups reported that cases of beer were being stacked, commercial sex workers were being recalled from Olongapo and Cebu cities, and bars were being spruced up.
"It does not only take a base to revive prostitution. The mere presence of US troops out for good time will enliven Fields because that was its reason for being all along: Cater to the needs of the visiting Americans," said Fanny Salas of the Pagkakaisa ng Kababaihan para sa Inang Bayan.
It is a view shared by Councilor Susan Pineda, also executive director of the IMA Foundation, an institution helping prostituted and sexually abused women and girls.
"Fiesta na naman," said a bar worker whom government helped to retire on income from a barbecue stall.
It has been that way, she said, since 1902 when Clark was built and eventually expanded until Mt. Pinatubo erupted and sent-the troops hastily pulling out in 1991.
Aetas
To the Aetas of Sapang Bato, who were among those displaced when the base proper of 4,400 hectares expanded to include some 30,000 hectares, the mock wars, target and bombing practices mean spent bullets and bombs to scour for or helicopter replicas to build.
Back then, a kilo of spent bullets translated to P30. Each aluminum wing of bombs the Aetas called palosapis easily earned them P300.
The replica made of bamboo was equivalent to one sack of rice for each of the five craftsmen.
But a difficult life this was.
They harbored an ambivalent attitude toward the Americans' presence because it ushered their displacement from large tracts of ancestral domains and living near or working on shooting ranges posed risks to lives.
Though there are no official records as to how many died while rummaging through military trash, reports of Aeta children doing or getting hurt from mishandling bullets made headlines.
Target, a narrow plateau west of Clark, is no more a shooting range. It is home to some 40 Aeta families who abandoned a resettlement site in Palayan City in Nueva Ecija.
"Munta la keni? Keni la mag-target (Will they go here? Will they have their practice here)?" asked Apong Teban not because he feared being displaced but because he and other Aetas wanted to see the "Kind Americans" again.
After all, they were the recipients of occasional medical missions around Clark then and made a living out of the base's refuse.
They viewed these as blessings rather than, mendicancy.
Those living in Little Baguio and in Marcos. Village looked forward to selling again their bulubudyong (bamboo flute), bow and arrow, and other souvenir items to the Americans.
North of Clark, on its Tarlac side, the Crow Valley gunnery range that gave simulated battle conditions to US Air Force, Navy and Marine tactical combat crews is now an expanse of a devastated grayland.
Here, several Aetas still donned the military jackets, complete with nametags, given them by their "American friends."
Pan Bituka's jacket was given by a certain Sergeant Donahue.
Like those in Target, they looked forward to making money out of the spent bullets and replicas, and getting medical help from the American's civic actions that usually accompany exercises.
No protest
Not even a word. of protest is cormn from Angeles Mayor Cannelo Lazatin, a former congressman and whose father also dominated local politics during the base years.
Activists take, it as a statement of concurrence.
In fact, Lazatin was the first Central Luzon official who aired the need to deploy Marines in Angeles. Although the request was made in the name of peace and order, it was made in time for the joint exercises.
Businessmen like Renato Romero, also the regional governor of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and industry, said he feared for the Angeles economy at the height of the debate over the VFA.
"Angeles has managed to live without the base and has managed to overcome the Pinatubo disaster. Businessmen have learned to evolve new services. Shall we revert to hinging our economy principally on the rest and recreation industry?" he asked then.
How the local businessmen would fare in asserting their formula for the city's growth remains to be seen.
The howls , are coming, expectedly, from the activists who still carry their anti-VFA advocacy.
TheAmericans never actually left, according to Ana Agustin-De Guzman, spokesperson of the Kilusan para sa Pambansang Demokrasya.
"Even without the bases, the US has managed to interfere through imposition to restructure the economy by way of policies in liberalization, privatization and deregulation. The VFA is the military component of that restructuring," she said.
The KPD is spearheading protests against the war games under the VFA.
If at all, she added, the war games, like the large-scale ones held in the 1980s in Dingalan, Aurora, Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija, and in Clark and Subic, are "rehearsals for intervention" and "springboard for US global military interventions."
The People's Task Force for Bases Clean Up opposes the war games on three counts:
-The VFA does not guarantee environmental protection.
-The Pentagon has a very poor track record in environmental protection.
-The issue of toxic waste contamination in the former military bases remains
unresolved with the Pentagon reiterating last June it had no responsibility for
a clean up.
The Nuclear-Free Philippines Coalition says no to the VFA on 10 grounds. These include the anomalous and unequal procedure where it was only the Philippine Senate, without its US Counterpart, that ratified the treaty.
It contains provisions that grant privileges only to the US and the verbal assurances to the Philippines went unwritten.
With no base but with US troops back, Angeles will have to deal again with the century-old paradox of living on the graces of the Americans and dealing with the issue of national freedom and patrimony, activists say.
TONETTE OREJAS
PDI Central Luzon Desk
