Negotiations over the lease amount paid by the U.S. to the Philippine government ran into an impasse in the Philippine Senate. A majority of the Senators wanted to substantially increase the lease amount. While the negotiators were bickering, My. Pinatubo erupted and buried one of the major bases, Clark AFB, under tons and tons of volcanic ash. The base was a total loss.
The loss of Clark AFB was the final nail in the negotiations coffin for the Americans. They told the Philippines they were withdrawing from the bases and redeploying assets over the years 1992-1994. As they left, the Americans packed up their equipment and supporting logistics. The Filipinos got the empty shells of these bases. Eventually the Americans were gone, 80,000 Filipinos that worked on the U.S. bases lost their well paying jobs, and the Philippines lost their lease income.
Now the Chinese dragon is stirring up things, the Philippines want the military muscle of the Americans back in their country. They want Americans to block Chinese ambitions. I don't see this happening. The Philippines bit the hand that fed and helped protect them in 1991; we're gone and not coming back.
“The Philippines bit the hand that fed and helped protect them in 1991; we’re gone and not coming back.”
Remember the closing of the range in Puerto Rico (Vieques?); they made a big stink about the danger to the natives, they got Al $harpton involved, and the US military complied and shut it down. The day after, the Puerto Ricans looked at their empty restaurants and dry cleaners and all of the other perks that come with a base, and asked if we could re-open it.
Be careful what you wish for...
And, Chinese merchants have been part of PI society for hundreds of years so Filipinos should be used to having them around.
We almost lost an LHA as well in Subic. All the ships were washing ash off the decks as fast as we could, but the LHA waited before commencing thinking it wouldn’t be as much as it was. By the time they commence clearing operations they were alreadying listing several degrees and straining their mooring lines. Ended up using the helo dollies as bulldozers to push it overboard as fast as they could.
We washed ash for 2 days straight in rotating crews. Electronic equipment was impaired and we continued to have issues with it for months afterward as the ash was so fine it couldn’t be properly filtered without shutting off the cooling completely - stuff was everywhere - I still have some of the larger chunks that hit me on the head.