Central Luzon
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Again 13 persons were executed in Cavite City September 12, 1896, as a retaliatory act of the Spanish for the Katipunan revolution of the same year. In memoriam of this execution, the capital town of Cavite Province was named Trece Martires. On June 12, 1898, the Philippines declared itself independent of Spain in Kawit, Cavite.
The east coast of central Luzon, adminis-tratively part of Quezon and Aurora provinces, is consid-ered grossly neglected by the national gov-ernment and presumed under NPA control. On June 30, 1986, the NPA dared to permit full media coverage of an ambush of a government convoy near the town of Gumaca. The ambush left 21 soldiers dead.
On the mountainous peninsula of Bataan, the NPA is also considered strong. The communists had chosen the town of Samal in this province to stage its own armed parade December 14, 1986, the day a 3-month cease-fire between the government military and the NPA became effective.
Several thousand armed rebels had gathered for that event. In Bataan province, the CPP and NPA also es-tablished their first local and regional alterna-tive government bodies.
Bataan has a military tradition. The peninsula was chosen by US and Philippine troops in World War II as the last bastion of defense against the Japanese invasion forces. The US and Philippine forces only surrendered after heavy fighting on April 9, 1942.
It was followed by the infamous Death March of 36,000 US and Philippine soldiers from the town of Mariveles in Bataan province to Camp O'Donnel in the town of Capas in Tarlac province. It was a painful trek without food or water which many of the prisoners of war did not survive.
Capas, some 25 years later, on March 19. 1969, was the site for the founding of the New People's Army. From there, the NPA had extended its influence over the plains of cen-tral Luzon. This region had long been a hotbed for rebellions. In the 1950's the pop-ulist communist Huks had their stronghold in the central Luzon plains, mainly the province of Pampanga. Pampanga province also had been the site of several early revolts, in 1660 of Filipino natives against the Spanish, in 1762 of the Chinese against the Spanish and Philip-pine natives.
US BASES
For decades the US have had huge military bases in central Luzon, Clark Air Base near Angeles City and Subic Naval Base at Olongapo City. In the final stage of the negotiations for a new bases treaty in 1991, the US lost interest in Clark Air Base because of the damage done to the facility by the eruptions of Mt Pinatubo. A few months earlier, the US would have agreed to high continuous compensation payments for the facility, and the Philippines could have rented it out for many years in advance. Roberth H. Reid of Associated Press, in an article printed in the Manila Bulletin on June 18, 1991, quoted a diplomat as saying: "If he (Manglapus) had closed the deal a month ago, the Americans would have laid down a fat check."
The US had proposed a 10 to 12-year extension for Clark and Subic and indicated she was willing to pay 360 million US dollars a year in compensation. The Philippine government offered a 7-year extension and demanded 825 million US dollars a year, half in cash and the rest in trade concessions and debt relief. The Philippines appeared to be wavering on the 'non-cash component' and the two sides were only about 30 million dollars apart when the volcano began erupting June 9, 1991.
After the eruptions of Mt Pinatubo began, there wasn't much left to negotiate about Clark Air Base. "We have been advised that they are no longer interested in Clark. So we're only talking now about Subic," the Manila Standard of July 17 quoted Manglapus as telling the Philippine senators in the presence of President Aquino.
US and Philippine negotiators still agreed July 17, 1991, on a 10-year extension until September 17, 2001, but only for the Subic naval facility at Olongapo. However, on September 16, 1991, the Philippine Senate refused in a 12-to-11 vote to ratify the newly negotiated RP-US Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Security which would have replaced the Military Bases Agreement of 1946.
The US Subic Naval Base at Olongapo was then set to be phased out by the end of 1992. The 25,000-hectare base, 80 kilometers west of Manila, last had about 5,800 troops and 4,500 dependents. All in all, the US in recent years had maintained about 40,000 troops, dependents and civilian employees at six bases, including Clark and Subic.
Continued
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