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Have The Taiwanese Abandoned Subic?
First Published: TBA Publication Date: April 29th 1994 Author's Name: Father Shay Cullen SSC Hundreds of angry demonstrators marched to the gates of the former Clark Air base in Angeles city a few weeks ago waving banners and placards protesting against the duty-free shops there were opening up there. The people were protesting the damage that the duty free shops were doing to their livelihood in the city. That demonstration was a strange paradox because the conversion of the former military bases to economic sound employment opportunities for Filipinos was having exactly the opposite effect. Conrado R. Banal 11 writing in the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Business section, last 7 November blamed the order of President Ramos freezing the opening of more duty-free shops for the unemployment inside the base. He claims that Subic Free port will sink into economic depression if the freeze continues. Local business people in Olongapo however feel much like the business people in Angeles, the duty free shops are a terrible mistake and they are damaging the local economy and depriving the people of Olongapo of Jobs. He described the Subic Free Port as a ghost town with empty parking lots and deserted streets and that hotel employees were looking for jobs abroad. The World Bank who was to finance a $200 million computerized system for controlling duty-free shopping at Subic has cancelled the project . With the movement against duty-free shopping gaining momentum the bank believes that the venture is not worth the risk. It sees no future in that kind of consumer driven "development". If the free port is a ghost town as Mr. Bernal describes then it is because there are very few manufacturing investments in the Free-port . Creating alternative employment was the whole point of the six-point conversion plan that was first drawn up by the think tank at the Preda Foundation in Olongapo back in 1986. The Foundation invited Professor Jeff Dumas from Texas, (an expert in military base conversion theory), to come to Olongapo and discuss the Preda conversion plan for the military base. Rep. Joker Arroyo was executive Director to President Aquino then and met myself and Professor Dumas and discussed the possibilities. Back them it seemed a wild dream but eventually the ideas put forward by the Preda Foundation found an audience with the Abueva board set up by the government of Cory Aquino in the University of the Philippines to design such a plan. The directors of the Preda Foundation including this writer and Director Alex Corpus Hermoso were invited to share their original six-point conversion plan. One of the center ideas(among others ) was the conversion of the facilities to light industry and the setting up of a University of the Environment in Cubi Point . When the base closed finally on November 22 1992 former mayor Richard Gordon was devastated by the defeat of his campaign to keep the base open sadly watched the last ship pull out. But then Gordon was suddenly converted himself to the wonderful idea of "military base conversion " as if he had though about it himself all along. While the Six Point Conversion Plan of Subic was the original idea of the Preda Foundation Inc. the original idea of setting up a free port in Olongapo is rightfully claimed by the Olongapo Free Port and Economic Movement headed by Mr. Conrado L. Tiu. Mr. Tiu is trying to help Olongapo by petitioning the supreme court to reverse executive order no.97-A . This confines the special economic zone inside the former base perimeter. Mr. Tui wants the full implementation of Republic Act 7227 which will extend the benefits of R.A. 7227 as a free-port and special investment to all of Olongapo and the Municipality of Subic. Chairman Gordon is devastated anew by the fact that the "Eagle of Asia " is just not flying. A recent report in the Inquirer listed the massive investment flowing into all the special economic zones in the Philippines, like Cavite, Mactan, Marivelles and so on but Subic was not even listed. The flood of press releases from the SBMA over the past two years proclaiming a new "Hong Kong" at Subic raised hopes among the people of Olongapo. More and more volunteered their free labor in the hope of cashing in on the boom and getting a job but they are deeply disappointed. There are very few jobs and their certificate of volunteerism is worthless. They have been betrayed. The biggest news of all is that the massive Taiwanese investment to develop and build a huge industrial park inside the Subic Free port has been abandoned. This has yet to be confirmed by the SBMA. This has long been touted as the jewel of chairman Gordon's development efforts but the word is that they have pulled back. The same investors are looking at alternative investment sites elsewhere in the Philippines. If this is true then it is tragic blow for the people of Olongapo who had but their trust and hopes and promises of chairman Gordon and Congresswoman Kate Gordon. A memorandum of agreement had already been signed, a ground breaking ceremony at the site completed and yet the bulldozers have yet to roll. The area was to be developed by a joint development company between the Taiwanese consortium and the SBMA and it was the hope of the people of Olongapo. But those dreams seem to be dashed and the SBMA has been strangely silent about what is going on. There are speculations that the commissions being asked were too high, that certain officials wanted a very big a slice of the action and so on. Allegations of graft are rife but the truth we may never know. But all things considered it is tough times ahead for the people of Olongapo and Mardi Gras, October fests and efforts to revive the commercial sex industry are no substitutes for sound economic investment in high-tech manufacturing.
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