“PAMPANGA, BEING the host to the former premier military installation in the Far East, the Clark US Air Force Base, has a lot to thank Ambassador Kenney for. Along with the present military forces in the country, she is a key figure to the Clark Special Economic Zone because of the economic and military assistance.”
So rationalized Pampanga 2nd District Board Member Catalina Bagasina in filing her resolution at the sangguniang panlalawigan that seeks to declare US Ambassador to the Philippines Kristie Kenney as an “adopted daughter of Pampanga.”
If only I did not esteem Sasmuan’s Cinderella so highly, I would have sneered at her apparently being hopelessly trapped in a time warp there.
The American forces had long ago – in 1991 yet, all of over 17 years to be precise – left a Clark US Air Force Base thoroughly devastated by the Mount Pinatubo eruptions, and as thoroughly looted by brigands both in and out of uniform.
Filipino hands – and brains – have since transformed what truly was the biggest American military installation outside continental USA into the highly-productive commercial, industrial and aviation complex it is now.
Hence, I could not readily comprehend Ma’am Lina’s statement of “present military forces in the country” who, along with Madame Kenney, were a “key figure to the Clark Special Economic Zone.”
I could only speculate that she meant the GI Joes periodically airlifted here pursuant to the Visiting Forces Agreement the to do their war games with Filipino troops under monikers like “Talon Vision” and some such jingoisms.
If that were so, then I can only tell Ma’am Lina that more than the Clark Special Economic Zone – a time warp there again, CSEZ having morphed to the Clark Freeport – it is Fields Avenue and its powder-puffed girls that get the most out of the “present military forces” who have but temporary stay in the country.
On Her Excellency, Ambassador Kenney, we know little, if any, of her direct or indirect contributions to the development of Clark Freeport to warrant her being a “key figure” there. Even with giant Texas Instruments locating at Clark, her name did not figure in any way. At least in the voluminous press releases that heralded TI’s coming.
Of her initiatives in Mindanao, particularly in the conflict areas of Sulu, Tawi-Tawi and Basilan, there we know much of. So much – the contributions in the socio-economic uplift of the people, both Christians and Muslims – that she truly merits not only an adopted daughter status, but most certainly, in the Muslim south’s tradition, the royal title of princess.
Notwithstanding what seems to be little – as yet – contributions the US Ambassador has given to the province, let us by all means make her not simply an adopted daughter, but an exalted adopted daughter of Pampanga.
If only for the fact that of all the US envoys, and in all probability, of all the ambassadors, consuls and other diplomats of other nations that ever served in the Philippines, only Madame Kristie Kenney has a direct ethno-linguistic linkage with the Kapampangan: a bond with the very term that distinctly defines the Kapampangan from the other Filipino ethnic groups. Why, that’s keni , what else?
Here, and now, is once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the Mekeni nation to rightfully claim one top American diplomat as truly its own. Keni keta, Kenney karin, pare-pareu ya mu rin. (Keni here, Kenney there, it’s still the same anywhere.)
