Tantingco: Pinatubo and our Real Independence

By Robby Tantingco
Peanut Gallery
Tuesday, June 7, 2011

IT WAS one more amazing coincidence that Mount Pinatubo erupted in the very year that the RP-US Military Bases Agreement was set to expire. Because there were as many Filipinos wanting the bases out as those wanting to keep them, the expiration of the Agreement was tearing the country apart — until Pinatubo settled the matter.

The Agreement was forged in 1947. World War II had just ended, and true to form, the United States hurriedly packed up and left, instead of staying a few more years to rebuild its devastated colony. To make it appear that they did not abandon us in a time of need, our so-called friends granted our independence.

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And because they wanted to have their cake and eat it too, the Americans retained their military presence here. Clark was their largest Air Force Base in the world and Subic their largest Navy Base.

Right between these two bases, and sleeping like a baby, was Mount Pinatubo.

Under the 1947 RP-US Military Bases Agreement, the bases, which had been here since 1903, would stay for 99 more years (until 2046).

The bases were supposed to ensure the mutual protection of the United States and the Philippines at the time of the Cold War (which started in 1947), the Korean War (which started in 1950) and the Vietnam War (which started in 1955).

Their presence, however, had the exact opposite effect: they helped escalate those wars and put the Philippines (and especially Pampanga) on ground zero in case of World War III, because the United States stored who knows how many nuclear bombs here and the Soviet Union directed who knows how many nuclear missiles towards us. One push of the button and Kapampangans would have taken the brunt of the nuclear exchange between the superpowers.

Also, the rental fee for the bases, which amounted to hundreds of millions of dollars every year, gave the Americans an excuse to continue dipping their fingers in our political affairs and kept Filipinos continue depending on US economic aid, thus preventing our nation from maturing economically and politically.

In other words, the independence that the United States supposedly granted in 1946 was actually a fake independence. The presence of the bases here ensured that the Philippines remain a de facto colony of the United States.

The bases also bred many social ills of the worst kind, including prostitution, marriage of convenience, illegal adoption, human trafficking, corruption, pilferage, theft, and black market.

Angeles became a city in 1964 and Olongapo in 1966 mainly because of their proximity to Clark and Subic, respectively. However, they also gained notoriety as the country’s version of the twin sin cities Sodom and Gomorrah, for maintaining red-light districts (Fields Avenue in Angeles and Rizal and Magsaysay Avenues in Olongapo).

In 1966, the tide of nationalism sweeping Manila forced President Marcos to renegotiate the RP-US Military Bases Agreement. As a result, the expiration of the bases’ agreement was advanced from 2046 to 1991.

There was no explanation for moving the expiry date to 1991, the year Pinatubo was set to erupt, a full 25 years before the volcano even showed signs of awakening — except that it was an amazing coincidence, or maybe the hand of God manipulating the affairs of men.

By the time 1991 came around, neither the United States nor the Philippines appeared ready to give up the bases.

And so, the two nations sent their respective emissaries to negotiate an extension of the Agreement. President Cory Aquino sent DFA Secretary Raul Manglapus while President George H. W. Bush (the older one) sent Richard Armitage.

As any negotiation goes, each party made an extreme initial proposal and counter-proposal and hoped the other party would call the bluff. The Philippine panel offered asked for $825 million annual rental fee and only a seven-year extension.

The United States panel asked for a 10-year extension and offered only $360 million a year. Manglapus and Armitage stared at each other across the table as their respective governments waited which of them would blink first.

And then the New People’s Army (NPA) poisoned the air by killing two US servicemen outside Clark, which forced a “lockdown,” i.e., mandatory confinement of US personnel inside the base for several days. Angeles folks resented the decision because it hit their businesses hard.

And then there was a series of strikes by Filipino base workers demanding a salary increase. The dispersal of strikers often resulted in violence, which led to more lockdowns.

But as the negotiations for the bases extension turned for the worse and made the closure of Clark and Subic seem imminent, no one really believed that the United States would turn over the bases as scheduled, on September 16, 1991.

As if on cue, Mount Pinatubo rumbled on April 2, 1991, serving notice that it had awakened and was ready to erupt.

The Philippines and the United States sent their respective scientists (the USGS and the Phivolcs) to determine if the volcano was really going to erupt, and when exactly it was going to erupt.

And as the scientists issued confused and confusing predictions, many wondered if Pinatubo’s impending eruption was being factored in the bases negotiations or being used to pressure the parties to soften their respective positions. On June 10, some 15,000 US personnel were evacuated from Clark to Subic, prompting the mayor of Angeles City to mock them as “overacting.” Some Filipinos suspected the United States was using a bully tactic to give the Philippines a preview of what could happen if a major military base were suddenly closed down.

On June 12, Independence Day (of all days), Mount Pinatubo sent a giant mushroom cloud shooting up to the sky for all the nations and the world to see and interpret.

On June 15, Mount Pinatubo’s climactic eruption destroyed both Clark and Subic. While the naval base was reparable, the air force base was not, because the volcanic would render aviation, telecommunications and computer facilities inoperable for years to come.

And so the United States decided to drop Clark from the bases extension negotiations and handed it back to the Philippines. This supposedly best friend and strongest ally of the Philippines returned a borrowed property all ruined and covered with ash, simply because it had no more use for it. Just like in 1946.

And the Philippines, which had always used the bases as a leverage to extract (some say extort) more aid from Washington, was left with a useless military base that it had to spend billions of pesos to clean up and reconstruct. Who would buy, even for a bargain price, a property with a newly sprouted active volcano in the backyard?

The Americans tried everything to extend their stay at Subic beyond the legal deadline in 1991, but the Philippine Senate voted to kick them out, in part because of the insincerity with which they treated Clark Air Base after the eruption.

On November 26, 1991, the Stars and Stripes were lowered at Clark Air Base for the last time. One year later, on November 24, 1992, the American flag was lowered at Subic.

It was the first time since Magellan landed in Cebu in 1521 that no foreign military forces were present in the Philippines. It was the first time that the Philippines was truly free.

If you ask me, our real and full Independence didn’t happen in 1946. It happened after Pinatubo erupted, in 1992.

(My book, Pinatubo: The Volcano in Our Backyard, will be launched on June 14 at 5 p.m. at Holy Angel University.)

Source: http://www.sunstar.com.ph/pampanga/opinion/2011/06/07/tantingco-pinatubo-and-our-real-independence-159722
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Clark Wine Center
Bldg 6460 Clark Observatory Building
Manuel A. Roxas Highway corner A Bonifacio Ave,
Angeles Clark Freeport Zone, Pampanga 2023
0922-870-5173 0917-826-8790 (ask for Ana Fe)

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Manila Sales Office
3003C East Tower, Phil Stock Exchange Center,
Exchange Rd Ortigas Metro Manila, Philippines 1605
(632) 637-5019 0917-520-4393 ask for Rea or Chay

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