The week-long 20th anniversary celebration of the Subic Bay Freeport kicked off with a special flag raising ceremony last 19 November 2012.
Chairman Garcia led the actual raising of the Philippine Flag that morning, close to 20 years after it was first officially raised inside the Freeport.
At that time, 24 November 1992 to be exact, it was the world’s largest Philippine Flag. It was unfurled and raised by former President Fidel Ramos and former SBMA Chairman Richard Gordon to the top of a 94-foot flag pole which symbolizes 94 years of US military presence in the Philippines.
On a nice sunny morning 20 years hence, I still feel exhilaration watching the Philippine flag rise from exactly the same location and starts waving on the way up, urged by a gentle wind.
The day was a welcome respite, too, from the scandalous, headline hugging issue about the alleged toxic waste dumping.
Requested by SBMA to deliver a short message about the Freeport’s 20th Anniversary, I was more than happy to oblige. Here it is:
Good morning! This month, we are celebrating the Subic Bay Freeport’s 20th anniversary. But let me just quickly go back 10 more years before it all started. That would be 1982.
Where we stand now was then still part of the US Naval Base, once the largest US military naval base in Asia and home to the US 7th Fleet. At that time, I was an apprentice machinist and mechanic, 20-some years old, no gray hair, working a kilometer or so from here—just past the Dispensary. At that time, there were around 30,000 of us locals working for the US Navy. Interestingly, I still see many of those who used to work here.
If I recall right, there were two flag poles right in this area—one for the Philippine flag, and the other for the US flag. Both were raised in the morning and lowered late in the afternoon. The big difference then was that everybody stops—pedestrians and vehicles alike—during the raising and lowering of the flags.
It’s almost like a different era. I even miss the many rock & roll night clubs on both sides of the Magsaysay strip just outside the main gate.
Ten years forward, in 1992, just two years after this area was devastated by Mt. Pinatubo, the Base workers were about to lose their jobs, mine included. I was already a senior systems programmer at that time and part of PWC’s Management Department. But that doesn’t matter, all jobs, from the lowest to the highest positions were about to dissolve into nothingness. Republic Act 7227 was just enacted early in the year, but we did not even know how that can possibly replace our jobs, and how it can possibly put food on our tables. We were in despair.
I have to give it to the first SBMA Chairman and Administrator, Richard Gordon. He provided the spark that replaced misery and despair with inspiration and aspiration.
Even the succeeding administrations, in my opinion, also contributed to the growth of the Subic Bay Freeport in some degree or another. That may be arguable to some but there is one indicator of growth that would be hard to dispute—from some 30,000 workers during the US Navy time, there are now three times as many workers here. Investors everywhere, in every nook and cranny that SBMA is now fast running out of space to lease. If that’s not success, I don’t know what is.
If you asked me 20 years ago if that would even be possible, I would have said you are kidding or probably smoking pot. It is an incredible feat! It is mind boggling!
And that’s not through sheer luck either. I’ve been witness to the hard work that SBMA and Freeport stakeholders, including the Subic Bay Freeport Chamber of Commerce, have done.
Sure, it’s not utopia, far from it. The SBMA is now facing fiscal problems. But that problem is not insurmountable. The national government is getting billions of pesos from Subic Freeport collections after all.
Sure, we face other problems especially those related to the environment. But those are not insurmountable either. In the end, it will even likely make us stronger.
One can look at this progress one way or the other. The pessimists will compare the Freeport’s progress with other developed countries and will find it minuscule, trivial, and irrelevant. The optimists will compare where we were two decades ago with where we are right now—and find progress! I belong to the latter.
So today, I stand here in front of you, not only on behalf of the Subic Bay Freeport Chamber of Commerce, but also on behalf of the former Base workers, and of the locals who were born and grew up here. Let me say that I am proud of what this place has become; I am proud to be part of this accomplishment, and I am thankful to those who were here before us, and those who are now with us for being instrumental in this success.
Finally, I am certainly looking forward to what this place will become in the future. I have no doubt that a lot more are in store for us; I believe that a decade or two from now, we will look back and say to our grand sons and daughters—you know kids, I was there, and I helped build that place! ... Happy 20th Anniversary!
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