Saturday, August 10, 2013

CLARK IN BETWEEN DINOSAURS

I don't get it why the former Clark Air Base was, and is still is, named after an American aviator [Maj. Harold M. Clark below] who have nothing to do with the Philippines when it in fact started as a military garrison of our revolutionary forces during the Filipino-American War which the Americans took during a fierce battle that lasted for three days in 1899.


It should be named to any of the Filipino generals [Hizon, Aquino, Del Pilar, Concepcion, Mascardo, Makabulos] who defended Angeles from the onslaught of the American colonial war machine during that time.


As we know it now, we lost Angeles to the Americans who took it. 

And they stayed.


Which gave birth to the famous Angeles sisig [made from pig parts, like the head, discarded from the air base], PX goods [items retailed at the Base Exchange that were eventually sold to Filipinos], and generated a lot of anti-US bases protest [as reflected in Patatag's "Batang Clark" and Nora Aunor's "Minsa'y Isang Gamugamu"].


In 1991, Mt. Pinatubo erupted and drove the Americans out.


The former airbase became known as the Clark Freeport Zone under the sovereign rule of the Philippines.


But it is still named after that American pilot who have nothing to do with the Philippines.

PHOTO CREDIT: All photos, except that of Maj. Harold M. Clark, were taken by Juan Gabriel L. Ciencia at the Clark Dinasour Island.

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