GORDON PAYS TRIBUTE TO SUBIC VOLUNTEERS

GORDON PAYS TRIBUTE TO SUBIC VOLUNTEERS
Senator Richard Gordon paid tribute to the thousands of volunteers of Olongapo City who sacrificed and worked hard to preserve the facilities of Subic Bay after they were abandoned by the US navy and who finally transformed Subic into a thriving commercial and industrial zone. He declared that the spirit of volunteerism, which transformed Subic into an economic and industrial hub, could also transform the Philippines into a modern and thriving nation.

In a privileged speech in the Senate, Gordon declared that the historic turnover of Subic Bay by the US to the Philippines on 24 November 1992 “marked the beginning of the conversion of one of the largest military facilities outside the continental United States, one that represented the latter's military power in Asia for almost a century, into a premiere economic hub and Freeport.” Then city mayor of Olongapo, Gordon recalled that the timing of the turnover “could not have been worse” as Subic and Clark Field, a US airbase in Pampanga, and surrounding areas, were devastated and covered by volcanic ash from Mt. Pinatubo that exploded a month earlier. “Yet we did not despair,” declared Gordon adding that “neither did we cower in fear nor blame the national government for the situation we were in.

Despite the twin disasters wrought by man and nature, guided by a shared vision, the people of Olongapo took a leap of faith to save our deserted and devastated community. Bloodied but unbowed, we marched to Congress and lobbied for a Freeport in Subic. True to the unconquerable soul of the people of Olongapo, like Invictus, we took charge of charting our own fate.” To preserve the base facilities for use in the Freeport, some 8,000 people volunteered, including street vendors, professionals employed by the US navy, lawyers, Filipino students and scholars from the United States, to protect the facilities, thus preventing massive looting and conserving the facilities for the community and country. “In doing so, the Filipinos of Olongapo while doing their duty preserved their dignity and dogged determination guaranteed prosperity and a future for their children,” Gordon declared.

The conversion of Olongapo into a industrial and commercial development zone also benefited not just surrounding provinces like Bataan, Pampanga and Zambales, but the entire Central Luzon by encouraging the establishment of allied industries and decongesting Manila. Subic became a hub for multinational corporations from all over the world, providing more than 70,000 jobs and attracting foreign investments that help develop the countryside. “Because of our hard work and confidence, we have over 300 companies in Subic Bay who have invested over $3 billion in three years,” said Gordon. Gordon said that Olongapo volunteerism is an example for the Filipinos to emulate nationwide. “I have therefore been preaching the gospel of volunteerism all over the Philippines as a way of galvanizing reform and modernization in the entire country,” he concluded.

Rizal's lesson: Breaking down walls of the mind

By Jerome Aning, Inquirer News Service

JOSE Rizal, the martyred national hero whose 108th death anniversary the nation observes today, believed that invisible walls had to be first torn down before a nation could truly achieve the goals of genuine freedom, unity and progress.

A year-old museum in Intramuros, the Old Walled City in Manila, remembers in a unique way Rizal's efforts to break the barriers that prevented the Filipinos from struggling for self-determination and a better life during four centuries of Spanish rule.

The Intramuros and Rizal Light and Sound Museum, operated by the Department of Tourism, gives new meaning to the terms Walled City and Bagumbayan, a flourishing native "new town" south of Intramuros where Rizal Park now stands, which the Spanish demolished in the mid-18th century.

Here visitors may appreciate Rizal's ideas about the Filipinos' need for psychological freedom if they were to break free from the bonds of colonialism.

A taped running commentary, strategically placed lighting and speakers, wall paintings, life-size dioramas and moving mannequins all combine to help visitors appreciate and understand the life of Filipinos from pre-Hispanic times to the end of Spanish rule in 1898.

The symbolism becomes a bit heavy, if not didactic, in the hour-long audiovisual presentation.

The museum's manager, Roberto Celis Jr., said the script of the audio-visual presentation would be revised soon to correct certain "inaccuracies" that have displeased some Filipino historians and Spanish diplomats who have visited the museum.

The museum exhorts Filipinos to "lift the veil and break the walls that have perpetrated the victimization of our minds, our hearts and our souls so that we may be liberated to create a society that is enabled, ennobled and free."

Intramuros, Spanish for "Within the Walls," the fortress-like city that served as the capital of Spanish colonial Philippines, is made out to be the symbol not only of Spanish might but also of the "limits to potential" imposed on the psyches of the native Filipinos, called indios by the colonialists.

Bagumbayan, founded by former residents of Maynilad, the settlement that was conquered and on which the foundations of the city of Manila were laid, becomes not just a symbol of the free state that the Filipino revolutionists in 1896 aspired to but also of "an attitude of trying to break free."

'Horizon-chasers'

Linking the two concepts is Rizal. Through education and self-reliance, the hero broke through the walls of ignorance and indolence to become a "horizon-chaser," in the words of the former tourism secretary and now senator Richard Gordon, whose brainchild the museum was.

Straddling the western ramparts of Intramuros, the two-story museum on Sta. Lucia Street is located where the Beaterio de la Compañia de Jesus, the religious congregation founded by Mother Ignacia del Espiritu Santo, once stood.

Celis and an 11-person staff run the museum which opened in November 2003. Most of the staff work as tour guides while the rest are researchers.

Celis said tourists from the nearby Clamshells, the DOT center for cultural exhibitions, and students on field trips are frequent visitors.

Many foreign dignitaries have also visited the museum. Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who toured the museum in November 2003, likened the sufferings of the Filipinos under Spain to those of his countrymen under Russian rule.

Celis said there are plans to set up a souvenir shop by next year.

A dozen chambers

Inside the building, visitors walk through at least a dozen chambers depicting how life in the archipelago was like before and after the coming of the Spanish colonizers.

They can see how Rizal, through his writings, fought the colonial oppression and discrimination that Intramuros symbolizes.

One chamber showcases the richness and diversity of pre-Hispanic Philippine culture: the Manunggul Jar and Palawan's Tabon Cave, the Ifugao Rice Terraces and the early Muslim trading communities of Sulu and Mindanao.

A video presentation shows the arrival in 1521 of the first of the Spanish conquistadors under Ferdinand Magellan and their subsequent defeat in the hands of Lapu-Lapu in the battle off Mactan island.

Depicting the period of permanent colonization is the chamber made out to resemble the interior of the flagship of the conquistador Miguel Ruy Lopez de Legazpi, who established and expanded Spanish rule in the archipelago in the late 16th century.

Another room depicts the construction of Intramuros, a medieval architectural wonder erected in a period of three years with the use of Chinese and Filipino labor.

Europe in Asia

Still another chamber portrays Intramuros as a piece of "Europe in Asia" where the Spanish ruling class lived and Western culture thrived. Native Filipinos were forbidden from entering except for those serving the colonial masters.

One chamber illustrates how the ecclesiastical authorities transformed the new colony into a "nation of prayer and song," with the commentator bewailing how "we consigned ourselves to faith, for we have lost faith in ourselves."

Another chamber purports to show how the civil authorities economically exploited the natives through the Manila-Acapulco galleon trade, commercial monopolies, over-taxation and forced labor.

The commentary reminds visitors that walls as sturdy and occlusive as those of Intramuros also existed in the minds of Filipinos, preventing their unification and growth as a nation.

Failed rebellions

Depicted in a row of statues occupying one large chamber are the leaders of the series of failed rebellions, among them Magat Salamat, Sumuroy, Francisco Dagohoy, Hermano Pule, Gabriela Silang and Sultan Kudarat.

The greater part of the museum deals with Rizal's "psychological triumph" over the Spanish conquerors through a narration of his life and work, from his childhood to his execution by firing squad in Bagumbayan Field in 1896.

Wall paintings depict Rizal's early education under his mother, his studies at the Ateneo Municipal and University of Santo Tomas and his departure for Europe.