Reasons the PGKM: The BCDA has lost its raison d’etre, the very cause of its existence which is the conversion of the former US military bases into engines of national economic growth and development. What with Clark and Subic now being full-pledged freeports hosting multinational industrial, commercial and leisure enterprises, generating tens of thousands in employment and billions of dollars in profit.
Yeah, what’s there to still convert in the already converted?
Recent events though at the once twin bastions of American imperialism in the Far East show the BCDA has not, pursuant to its eponymous mission, totally deconstructed the martial character of Subic and Clark.
Or, it could be that the freeports are simply reverting to their military past. And this has nothing to do with hosting US forces for the Balikatan exercises.
Two cases in point bear some consideration.
Last April 1, at near midnight, Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority executives leading 60 heavily armed men took over the Ocean Condotel which is currently embroiled in an intra-corporate dispute.
No April Fools’ Day joke but some sacrilegious act of the SBMA there, “at a time when the whole Christendom was in reflection of the passion of Christ” as our news report put it, the day of the raid being Holy Wednesday.
Not to mention the apparent illegality of the whole operation, given that work in both government and private offices were by then already suspended for the Lenten break.
And the timing of its (mis)conduct – under cover of darkness, further belying all legal and moral intentions, affirming surreptitious, if sinister, motives.
Coup
In effect, it was no less than a coup: like the mercenaries of yore, the SBMA raiders, without proper court order, installing one of the combatants in the corporate war, Kang Il Chan, as (il)legal and (un)rightful owner of the property in question.
For that incident – the raid and its aftermath – SBMA Chair-Administrator Roberto Garcia, along with his subordinates who conducted the raid, now face a case in the Ombudsman for “grave misconduct and grave abuse of authority.” The latter, with Korean principals led by Kang and one Choi Byung Kyu, plus their legal counsels also subjected to a criminal complaint for “grave coercion and usurpation of authority.”
A third case for “forcible entry and damages with prayer for preliminary mandatory injunction” was slapped on Kang, Choi, et al, at the Municipal Trial Court in Olongapo City.
Traumatic
Not as cinematic – picture now SBMA troops in full-battle gear, under cover of darkness storming the condotel – as the Subic raid, but no less traumatic for the hapless victim is the eviction of Eung Il “Steve” Kim from his leased property at the Clark Freeeport.
In January, Kim said no less than 30 “fully armed” security personnel of the Clark Development Corp. led by company lawyers took over Hollywood Park, his $8-million “retirement estate project.”
The temporary restraining order granted to Kim by the Executive Judge of the Angeles City Regional Trial Court to “maintain the status quo ante” laughed off by the CDC staff as “moot and academic” with them having already taken over the property. Shades of Junjun Binay there.
Kim had no recourse but take CDC Bossman Arthur Tugade and his subalterns to the Ombudsman.
From being no more than usual corporate concerns, the Ocean Condotel take-over in Subic and the eviction of Kim from his Hollywood Park in Clark have assumed gangland status, with the engagement of SBMA and CDC’s own stormtroopers in their heavy-handed enforcement.
Overkill
Doubtless, an overkill: That it had to take 60 “battle-ready” SBMA security to execute the condotel take-over, “absent court sheriff and court-issued writ of execution.” That it had to take 30 “heavily armed” CDC guards to serve Kim’s notice of eviction, a TRO be damned.
The intent, undoubtedly clear: Not so much to install some legal order, as to instil terror in the hearts and minds, if not in the very souls, of the less-if-not-least-favored locators.
The effect, all too telling: The climate of fear permeating the freeports, with Korean investors shivering in the deepest chill. Go, just ask anyone named Kim, Jo, Park, Jin and Shin. Investors, incoming ones especially, becoming now all-too wary of the freeports own version of gun diplomacy, aye, of statesanctioned terrorism, given SBMA and CDC’s status as government-owned and –controlled corporations.
Garrison state
For too long now, multi-sectoral groups – the PGKM, again, foremost – have been calling for the eviction, okay, relocation, of the Philippine Air Force from the Clark Freeport.
Their argument, as articulated by PGKM: “The continuing occupation of… Clark by the PAF virtually makes a garrison state of the whole Freeport, which is detrimental to the climate of investment in the area…Only in the Philippines, only in Clark at that, can one find military contingents and war materiel dumped in a Freeport and an international airport. What message does that impart on foreign investors, on tourists? That Clark is a war zone. And what businessman in his right mind would come to a war zone?”
As things turn now, PAF is the least of our worries of a garrison state at Clark. All Clark needs – and Subic too – is some petty tyrant with a penchant, if perverse take, on a Mao Zedong classic: Of power, not necessarily political and inclusively corporate, growing out of the barrel of a gun.
Be afraid, Kim and Jo. Be very afraid.
