By Atty. Antonio P. Pekas
The beautiful place “between the silence of the mountain and the crushing of the sea” is not there anymore. The expressway ended in the now commercial hub that arose from the ruins of the once American base in Olongapo (the sin city) popularly known as Subic. Actually Subic is a barangay of Olongapo.
We used to frequent that place from the late 80s to the early 90s, right after the Americans were driven away by the then spewing Mt. Pinatubo. We would drive there from Metro Manila early in the morning then head back before it got dark. The beaches were clean and there were not much people enjoying the clean greenish-blue water.
And there were no ships waiting around the bay waiting to be unladen.
All you could see then were a banca every now and then lazily floating towards unknown destinations.
Now, when we got there last weekend, there were a lot of people looking for parking spaces, or competing for the makeshift cottage as it was a weekend. Obviously, Filipinos now have more money and that we had been very busy taking care of the geometric rise in the population. Yes, Filipinos now have budgets for a weekend on the beach.
The trip was for the kids (my son and his cousins) to experience a beach and to know how it is to be swimming in the salt water. For us who are ‘taga banbantay’ that is not so common.
Another purpose as far as I was concerned was to show them the effects of different kinds of mentality. So we also passed by Clark. There were wide open spaces with trees. As the kids said, it was like UP Los Banos. When we got to Subic, it was almost the same—wide spaces with trees at the edges. While there are now commercial buildings closer to each other than how it was when it was a base, the remains of the open spaces are still obvious.
I was confused because the SCTEX (Subic Clark Tarlac Expressway) ended right inside the used to be US base, which is now a commercial center. The SCTEX was built from scratch, meandering through agricultural plains and hills that were cut. There is a very short tunnel punched through a hill. The usual route which is still what public transport use go through the main town of Olongapo then you go to the gates of the former base. The town is typical Filipino development—tagpi-tagpi—with the wall of one house touching that of the next. If a wife shouted at her husband, it would be very clear to the neighbors. Same thing with the clanking sounds of pots and dishes being kicked by the husband or being thrown by the wife.
You enter the used to be base and the difference is like night and day. It is modern development without congestion.
The Americans by nature need space where to swagger in perhaps. While we Filipinos would do things the congested way with small houses, many of which are made of light materials. I guess, it is not a question of lack of resources. It is more of the effect of our mentality. Thus so many friends ask me why I live outside of Baguio which is quite far (20 kms. Away). I would say it was to have no very close neighbors so no one would be privy to the sight and sounds of our domestic troubles. Actually, it is because I need space and the fresh air. Well, everybody needs these but others could not suffer the attendant inconveniences of living far.
As we found out the beaches in Subic are not anymore that pristine. The surrounding houses are so congested and I would not be surprised if they did not have independent septic tanks. The beach is a convenient place where to end sewer lines. And with all the ships parked around the bay and whose occupants would also find it convenient to dispose of their waste into the water, there is a high probability that PDu30 would describe the whole bay as a cesspool. But it seems that nobody cares. Where are the Department of Tourism and the DENR?
So we took a motorized banca (there is a lot of them there now catering to tourists) to go to a teeny weeny island in the middle of the bay where the water was clear. The crowd in the beach was multinational.
We are talking here of the public beach at barangay Subic where we only paid a thousand pesos for the cottage and for the shower rooms cum CRs. Third world but people make do.
There is a private resort inside the former base but I heard they charge big. You even have to pay “corkage” fees for the food you bring in.
After the crowded beach, we went back to the commercial center for lunch and then the kids and the ladies went to the duty free shop while I invited our driver (my aberat) to the hardware store. Nothing really special there except the prices which were in US dollars.
Was the trip worth it? Not, economically. For the educational part of it, yes.
One of the kids earlier suggested the beaches which are near Baguio but these are also cesspools with the sewer lines of the town ending up there.
So for fresh and clean beaches you might have to go all the way to Pagudpud, Ilocos Norte. Or why not Boracay? Too bad most of us can only think and imagine about it.**
