A SOUND initiative. That is the Clark Development Corporation (CDC) reportedly spearheading the training of 18 Aeta tribesmen on eco-tourism as part of the development of the Next Frontier in the Sacobia Valley.
The trainees, CDC said, also undertook a crash course in jungle survival at the JEST Camp in Subic.
The eco-tourism training I can understand. The jungle survival course, I don’t. Ain’t our Aeta brothers – and sisters – born masters of the jungle? So why the need to make them undertake that survival course? And why in Subic?
If memory serves right, at the time of the American occupation of Clark, especially at the height of the Vietnam War, Aeta tribesmen from Sapang Bato and Bamban served as trainors at the jungle survival course inside the air base.
US Air Force pilots were required so many hundred hours of training at the course, if only to prepare them for the rigors of the jungle if, and when, their Phantom jets were shot out of the sky over Vietnam.
Yes, even US Navy pilots regularly reported for training at the Clark jungle survival course.
So what has happened to those Clark-based trainors that CDC had to refer its trainees now to Subic?
Just asking there. Anyways, what CDC is doing for the tribesmen is laudable as it provides them employment opportunities. Those 18 trainees have been employed at the Clark Museum since they finished a tour-guiding course sometime ago under the auspices of the Department of Tourism Region III office.
The group was also taken on a tour of various museums to – in the words of CDC President Benigno N. Ricafort – “benchmark and observe” the work of curators and guides.
All bases covered there in the CDC efforts to truly raise the bar for the Aeta tribesmen as eco-tour guides. Truly remarkable.
A FRIGHTENING prospect. The CDC turning Sacobia Valley into the frontier that was the American wild, wild West with its formation of a so-called “Special Citizens Armed Forces Geographical Unit Active Auxiliary.” Acronymed by the CDC as SCAA but better understood, and more appropriately read as “Special CAFGU Active Auxiliary.”
The project is a recruitment of Ayta Security Detail for the Next Frontier. So was Ricafort quoted as saying. A collaboration program of the CDC with the Philippine Army’s 7th Infantry Battalion, the Philippine National Police and the Philippine Air Force.
More than 100 Aetas applied for the program and have trained at Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija, but only 88 will be hired.
Furthered Ricafort: “The hiring of Aeta security personnel is one of the CDC’s measures to provide livelihood programs for indigenous people in the Next Frontier area.”
The SCAA troopers’ primary function is “to assist and provide security to the surveying and engineering personnel to complete the land-marking of the Next Frontier Master Development Plan…and to the surveying and engineering contractors for the construction of the road infrastructure that will be funded with the advance rental payments of the Next Frontier investors.”
”The SCAA project is related to the CDC’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) program for the Next Frontier.” So enthused Ricafort.
So what did we find frightening there?
Engaging the Aeta tribesmen in police or military work. And impacting the dreaded CAFGU moniker upon them. The acronym SCAA will neither do justice to nor gloss over the bloodied mark of the CAFGU, especially in the hills around Clark.
The massacre of a family of six in Sitio Inararo, in the uplands of Sapang Bato in May 1988 was blamed on Aeta CAFGUs.
The dreaded “Salaginto” gang blamed for the killing of restaurateur Mr. Ting is reportedly composed of Aetas who were former military assets.
By arming Aeta tribemen, the CDC may be creating its own Frankenstein monster. Truly a very horrifying prospect there.
The trainees, CDC said, also undertook a crash course in jungle survival at the JEST Camp in Subic.
The eco-tourism training I can understand. The jungle survival course, I don’t. Ain’t our Aeta brothers – and sisters – born masters of the jungle? So why the need to make them undertake that survival course? And why in Subic?
If memory serves right, at the time of the American occupation of Clark, especially at the height of the Vietnam War, Aeta tribesmen from Sapang Bato and Bamban served as trainors at the jungle survival course inside the air base.
US Air Force pilots were required so many hundred hours of training at the course, if only to prepare them for the rigors of the jungle if, and when, their Phantom jets were shot out of the sky over Vietnam.
Yes, even US Navy pilots regularly reported for training at the Clark jungle survival course.
So what has happened to those Clark-based trainors that CDC had to refer its trainees now to Subic?
Just asking there. Anyways, what CDC is doing for the tribesmen is laudable as it provides them employment opportunities. Those 18 trainees have been employed at the Clark Museum since they finished a tour-guiding course sometime ago under the auspices of the Department of Tourism Region III office.
The group was also taken on a tour of various museums to – in the words of CDC President Benigno N. Ricafort – “benchmark and observe” the work of curators and guides.
All bases covered there in the CDC efforts to truly raise the bar for the Aeta tribesmen as eco-tour guides. Truly remarkable.
A FRIGHTENING prospect. The CDC turning Sacobia Valley into the frontier that was the American wild, wild West with its formation of a so-called “Special Citizens Armed Forces Geographical Unit Active Auxiliary.” Acronymed by the CDC as SCAA but better understood, and more appropriately read as “Special CAFGU Active Auxiliary.”
The project is a recruitment of Ayta Security Detail for the Next Frontier. So was Ricafort quoted as saying. A collaboration program of the CDC with the Philippine Army’s 7th Infantry Battalion, the Philippine National Police and the Philippine Air Force.
More than 100 Aetas applied for the program and have trained at Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija, but only 88 will be hired.
Furthered Ricafort: “The hiring of Aeta security personnel is one of the CDC’s measures to provide livelihood programs for indigenous people in the Next Frontier area.”
The SCAA troopers’ primary function is “to assist and provide security to the surveying and engineering personnel to complete the land-marking of the Next Frontier Master Development Plan…and to the surveying and engineering contractors for the construction of the road infrastructure that will be funded with the advance rental payments of the Next Frontier investors.”
”The SCAA project is related to the CDC’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) program for the Next Frontier.” So enthused Ricafort.
So what did we find frightening there?
Engaging the Aeta tribesmen in police or military work. And impacting the dreaded CAFGU moniker upon them. The acronym SCAA will neither do justice to nor gloss over the bloodied mark of the CAFGU, especially in the hills around Clark.
The massacre of a family of six in Sitio Inararo, in the uplands of Sapang Bato in May 1988 was blamed on Aeta CAFGUs.
The dreaded “Salaginto” gang blamed for the killing of restaurateur Mr. Ting is reportedly composed of Aetas who were former military assets.
By arming Aeta tribemen, the CDC may be creating its own Frankenstein monster. Truly a very horrifying prospect there.
