(A composite of Clark then and now. 28 years after the eruption, the former US base has gone full circle from a military base into one of the Philippines’ main economic centers. Right photo by CDC. Left by Arlan Naeg/Getty Images)
From utter devastation to complete restoration.
June 15 marks the 28th anniversary of the deadly eruptive stages of Mt. Pinatubo. It was the start of three days of darkness as ashes from a once dormant volcano blotted the sun as the disaster was coupled by a powerful tropical storm.
Many folks back then thought it was the end of the world. Who would not think that way? Volcanic debris made of mud and small pumice stones pelted from the sky. Darkness was aggravated by power outage. There was no transportation for people to flee onto refuge somewhere outside Pampanga.
The former Clark Air Base (CAB) was heavily devastated with ashfall and other debris piling up to waist deep. Roofs if not whole buildings collapsed. The GI Joes ran to Subic onward to their exodus to mainland USA.
With the local economy depending so much on the military base, doomsday prophets had it that Clark was a goner, a ghost town, a complete example of despair and desolation. Hanging over the heads of base workers and their dependents was the gloom and uncertainty brought by the proposed Treaty for the continued use of Clark by the Americans. That was rejected three months later by the Philippine Senate.
That made it all seemed hopeless for Clark and the local communities where about 30,000 workers depended for a living.
Fast forward into the future, the doomsayers were proven wrong.
Dr. Irineo “Bong” Alvaro, Jr., once the highest ranking Filipino civilian employee in CAB, said there is not just life after the bases.
“There is no life but only a better life after the bases,” Alvaro says in retrospection.
Alvaro was widely criticized then not just by fellow Filipino base workers but also by government leaders both on the local and national levels. He remembers getting a mouthful from Senator Richard Gordon who was then a solidly backing the stay of American troops, owing to his affinity to Subic Naval Base as a former Olongapo City mayor.
Alvaro is now chairman of the Clark Investors and Locators Association as he heads a Clark-based billion dollar business empire that runs Midori Hotel, Aqua Planet, Eagle Sky and BB Incorporated. Their employees alone run in several hundreds.
Clark, now converted into a Freeport (the fenced in 4,440 hectare former Clark Air Base proper) and Special Economic Zone (some 29,000 hectare reverted baselands adjacent to the north). It is managed and operated by Clark Development Corporation being the implementing arm of the Bases Conversion Development Authority.
It is booming. From six locators in 1994, the total is 1,038 locator-firms combines whose investments total to P154.6 billion . The value of exports is pegged at $4.6 billion. Undoubtedly, it is now one of the major anchors of Philippine economy.
Workers count is at 123,000 and these warm bodies also add up to nation’s coffers by way of individual income taxes and personal spending.
Clark Development Corporation President Noel Manankil, first hired in Clark 24 years ago, has also seen the transformation. Most of his professional life was spent in calculating revenues and expenses as he held finance position before taking the helm in 2016.
At the early stages of CDC’s operations, he remembers finding a pin-like or a very slim triangle net income when it comes to drawing a pie that represents all the transactions in the financial standing of the state-owned firm. CDC was created in 1993.
“That triangle representing our income was so thin that it looked almost like a line or a pin,” Manankil said.
“We can now only be thankful to our locators and the rest of our stakeholders for not just helping CDC but revving up the local and national economies,” he added.
CDC remitted P4.07 billion in total cash dividends from 1996 to present. For 2018 alone, the contributed was P816 million, putting CDC in the list of top 10 government corporations with highest remittances.
By November, Clark is playing host to some of the games of the upcoming 30th Southeast Asian Games, which the Philippines is hosting.
The New Clark City inside the SEZ is being rushed. It features the National Government Administrative Center, a 20,000-seater track and field stadium, a 2,000-seater aquatics center and an Athletes Village, among others.
