Vieques Protest Backfires

Pinatubo blew about 2 months before Clark was to start closing. Had some good friends there at the time and they lost 90% of their belongings during the evacuation. The Filipino Government demanded that we come back and clean up the base, but we said "Sorry, ours for just the next several months and it isn't worth it for us to clean up just to have to abandon again."

No, this was some beach property down on the (I believe) northeast end that had been claimed by the descendants of the families who had originally donated it to the Japanese Navy prior to WWII, who decided that their claim was more valid than that of the U.S. Navy. But there were conflicting claims to the same land, so in a moment of Solomon-like revelation the Navy ceded the land to the local government to resolve the claims of the various ancient - and some of them actually were, by all reports - families.

Well, the dirt came out somewhat later that several competing chains of Japanese resort hotels had their fingers in the claims and in the nearly incessant protests. I believe the Prince was one of these but don't quote me (this was in the early 90s). I don't know what the actual upshot of the affair was, but while I was visiting the government was threatening to do just what happened in the story, turn the land into a wildlife preserve and not let it be developed at all. It was amazing how quickly the tumult and shouting died down after that.

I know when I was there in the late 70's, the navy had to cede half of Cocos island to some Chamarros who proved that they owned it. There was some talk of putting an amusement park there, but I don't know if anything came of it.

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