Prostitution and the Bases: A Continuing

Saga of Exploitation
Prostitution and the Bases:
A Continuing Saga of Exploitation
by Aida F. Santos and Cecilia T. Hofmann
with assistance by Alma Bulawan , May 1998
I Introduction and Background
The present paper outlines the brief history of the US military bases in the Philippines and
provides a sweep of the impact both during the long presence of the bases and in the aftermath of
the bases closure in 1991. In this connection, it is essential to note that the withdrawal of the US
bases did not necessarily mean improved lives for those living in and around the former
baselands. Moreover, the question of militarism continues as a concern of the Filipino people. In
more ways than one, the US bases presence and their closure provided an environment that
demanded a closer look at the question of human rights and how this interweaves with issues of
security.
Brief history of the US bases
In the Philippines
IN 1947, a year after the US occupation of the Philippines officially ended, the Philippine and
US governments signed the RP-US Military Agreement (MBA) which allowed the latters
unhampered use of Philippine territory for military bases and facilities for the next 44 years. But
this was not the first time that foreign troops made their home in the country. Subic Naval Base,
for example, was put up by the Spanish colonial government and used from 1896 to 1898, then
ceded by the Hispanic government to the US. When Japanese overrun the country in a brief but
intense period, beginning January 1942, the new colonizers occupied Subic, until the end of the
Second World War when it lost to the Americans. The base proper and related sites occupied
some 24,415 hectares. Subic was the main port, training and logistics support for the US Seventh
Fleet. The Clark Air Base, on the other hand, was originally called Fort Stotsenberg and had its
history as a US Army Cavalry station until 1898, the end of the Spanish-American war. Clark
occupied 63,103 hectares, and served as the tactical operational US airforce installation in the
entire Southeast Asian region that had the capacity to accommodate the US military transport
planes which served the entire Western Pacific.
______________
Paper submitted to the International Planning Meeting on WOMEN AND CHILDREN,
MILITARISM AND HUMAN RIGHTS, held on May 1- 4, 1997, at Naha, Okinawa.
The MBA was seen by the progressive sectors of Philippine society as one of the most blatant
symbol of neo-colonial relations between the US and the Philippines. Despite the so-called
independence of the country in 1945, the Philippine economcy, politics and security was heavily
and substantially tied up with that of its former colonial master.
Clark and Subic also served for many long years a symbol of the Filipino womens
commercialization as entertainers and hospitality girls euphemisms for prostitution, as
many women from a number of depressed regions in the country were enticed, duped or seduced
into the glamour that foreign cultures in foreign-oriented cities brought along with the US bases
and facilities.
Closure of the US military bases
In 1992, after long and acrimonious campaigns waged by supporters and opponents of the
renewal of the treaty between the United States and the Philippine governments that would allow
the continued presence of US military bases on Philippine soil, the Philippine Senate voted to
reject the treaty renewal. It is important to note, however, that a majority of senators opposed the
proposed new treaty on grounds that it did not contain more favorable economic terms for the
Philippines. Only a small number of oppositors raised issues of sovereignty and US hegemony in
the Philippines and the region. To a significant degree, the rejection by the legislative body was
built on the many years of struggles of a militant anti-bases movement in the country. In
November of the same year, the last US military base personnel left the country.
However, the impact of the presence of the US bases in the country which began in the 1900s is
deep and continuing, particularly in the base communities and on the women and children.
Continued entry of military vessels
Since 1992, US military vessels continue to call at Philippine ports, to hold joint military
exercises basing on existing Mutual Defense Treaty, and for rest and recreation shore leave for
US servicemen. There have been reports of negotiations for US access rights to Philippine ports
that will take the guise of commercial arrangements for repairs and maintenance work, refueling
and the like. The free port project, for example, in Subic, one of the former baselands, opens the
opportunity for such access to happen, in the guise of commercial arrangements.
It is not clear at what point the secretly held ACSA (acquisition and cross-servicing
agreement) discussions are that would allow US troops and facilities to be deployed in the
Philippines. The Philippine Constitution requires that any military agreement be approved by the
Philippine Senate. The attempts to give a commercial or temporary character to US military
entry into the country seeks to circumvent the provisions of the Philippine Constitution.
II Socio-cultural and economic impact of the US bases
The specific impact on the women and their communities in the former US bases is contained in
WEDPROs study conducted in January-June 1990 when it was commissioned by the
Legislative-Executive Bases Council (LEBC) along with 13 other consulting groups to study the
possible ways to convert the baselands into economically productive areas sans the bases, and to
determine the needs of the women in the entertainment industry. The comprehensive
conversion program proposed by WEDPRO in 1990 to the LEBC is contained in a publication
called From Carriers to Communities which is the popular version of the Technical Report
submitted by WEDPRO to the LEBC.
The conversion program proposed by WEDPRO and the other consulting groups which
addressed the urban poor sector, indigenous communities of the Aetas and the base workers,
were deemed the human face of the conversion program and was approved by the government
of then President Corazon Aquino as priority projects for immediate implementation as soon as it
was submitted to the Office of the President. Between July 1990 up to 1991, intense lobbying
and advocacy were done by the human face groups. To date, the local and national
governments have implemented nothing out of those studies.
The WEDPRO study focused on two major baselands, Clark Air Base in Angeles, Pampanga and
Subic Naval Base in Olongapo, Zambales. These areas at the time of the study had around
55,000-60,000 women and girls in the entertainment industry; the other base facilities also had
prostitution as an industry but Angeles and Olongapo exhibited the most dramatic impact from
and dependency on the US bases.
Socio-cultural impact
One of the most enduring impact of the long years of the Philippines hosting of the US bases in
its territory is seen and felt in the socio-cultural sphere. The bases presence held the Filipinos
particularly those in the former baselands captive to the ideological frame that Filipinos needed
the bases not just for security but also as an economic resource. This mindset deeply affected
Filipinos who continued to believe of the idea of the benevolent Americans who, in turn,
regarded them as brown Americans.
The bases presence contributed and continues to contribute to the perpetuation of neo-colonial
relations between the US and the Philippines at both the macro and individual levels. At present,
nearly five years after the American troops and personnel left, women who were in prostitution
prior to 1991-1992, still pine for the great American dream, that is, marrying a foreigner if not an
American man who will take them to live in foreign lands. In Angeles City, among the women
WEDPRO works with, some of the women still continue to communicate or keep in touch with
their American boyfriends. Marrying a foreigner is the only salvation, as some women put it,
for them to get out of poverty and forget their past, hoping that in the US they could live a life
which would erase their years in prostitution.
Amerasian children
The phenomenon of Amerasian children, now estimated at 30,000 is another consequence of the
US bases presence in the country. These children receive no assistance from the US and
Philippine governments, save for the very minimal and oftentimes difficult to access educational
grants from one American organization. Ingrained in the culture of colonialism are racist
attitudes so that particularly the children of Afro American fathers and Filipino women are
ostracized and seen more negatively than the light-skinned, light-haired counterparts.
In a study conducted by Task Force on Amerasian children, the mean age of Amerasians was 12
years in 1994. Nine out of ten children were born out of wedlock, while 60 percent of them were
properly registered in the office of the civil registrar oftentimes by their mothers.
Two-thirds of Amerasians live with and are being cared for by their natural mothers in single-
headed households; 13 percent are under the care of surrogate parents who often are relatives of
the women; 15 percent are with non-relatives; five percent live on their own and one percent are
in institutions. This means that on the whole Filipino women and their relatives eventually end
up single-handedly providing for all the needs of the Amerasian child, with no support from the
American fathers. Nearly 100 perent of those mothers of Amerasians interviewed for the Task
Force study said that they had no jobs or were employed minimally.
One third of Amerasians are out of school, and those who are in schools are oftentimes able to do
so only because of some educational support from institutions. Once these institutions face
financial problems, the schooling of the child is jeopardized.
The top six needs of the Amerasian children identified during the interviews were:
education
US citizenship
employment
housing
livelihood
skills development
This hierarchy of needs point to the reality that the children find going abroad with their fathers
or paternal relatives a more desirable option that finding local employment which is admittedly
difficult, thus, the American dream of their mothers is sustained by that of the children. What the
interviews did not surface as clearly were psycho-social needs for identity, an end to
discrimination, basic physical and emotional health, and integration into communities that in
NGOs work with this population are also keenly felt.
Sexual exploitation
Due to the pervasiveness of prostitution in the baselands, prostitution and other forms of sexual
exploitation were seen as normal in those communities, highlighted by the establishment of red-
light districts known as the entertainment section of the communities. During the survey
period, WEDPRO found that of the total number of those in prostitution in Angeles City, 70
percent were in prostitution well before they were 18 years old. Among those working in tightly
guarded casa or brothels, 50 percent of those interviewed had never worked in similar situations
before they were brought into the casa.
Other forms of prostitution-related establishments such as hotels and motels became a part of the
normal social and economic landscape of the cities or towns where the bases were situated,
thereby effectively normalizing prostitution and the concept of R and R by personnel on shore
leave as well as ground-based staff. Prostitution and sexual exploitation became acceptable to the
local population. In such a scenario, all forms of injustices against the women were generally
taken lightly by the community as if their mere presence in the whole prostitution chain was
enough justification for these crimes and injustices.
Through this phenomenon, womens subordinated status further became entrenched, as female
sexual service for male needs was normalized in the paid-sex setting. The good versus bad
women dichotomy pitted women against each other and provided a scapegoat for many social
problems. In 1992, in a focus group discussion with women who did not work in the bars,
WEDPRO encountered a prevalent thinking among local women of Angeles City that
prostitution allows them to be freed from the sexual services that their husbands demand of
them, and these included sexual acts which the wives felt were only done by bad women, the
prostitutes. One woman emphatically said that she allowed her husband to use a prostituted
woman because to her, his sexual practices were perversities meant only to be done to pigs.

Consumerism and colonial values
The consumerist lifestyle in the baselands also was a strong impact of the many years of US
bases in the country. Imported goods were the standard and the stateside mentality pervaded
these communities. This mentality continues to be reinforced as duty-free stores in the economic
zones of the former baselands perpetuate the PX culture. In a country where 80 percent live in
abject poverty, the presence of big PX shops is an obscenity and a cultural domination which
continue to entrap ordinary Filipinos in a one-sided and irrationally consumerist environment
which does not promote pride in national identity.
Health concerns
The pervasiveness of reproductive tract infections which included sexually transmitted diseases
(STDs) and HIV and AIDS haunted the lives of the women. One woman tells of her experiences
with a US military who had barfined her for a month. One day she started itching badly and
asked the man if he was too. She found crab lice in his genitalia and tried to persuade him to get
treated. She demanded money for treatment and suggested that he too see a doctor. He found this
suggestion insulting and threw her out of the house, along with her clothes which were scattered
in the road.
In one discussion conducted by WEDPRO in 1995 for a project in Angeles City, the participants
who worked in the bars during the base period openly discussed the various RTIs and STDs
which they had when they were active in the industry, and almost all the usual types of STDs had
been experienced by them.
The women learned various ways to treat their STDs if they had no means or were ashamed to
get proper medical treatment. Abuse of antibiotics through self-medication was prevalent.
Douching using various chemicals and concoctions were also used by the women which posed
risks.
Abortions were common. A woman who worked the bars of both Olongapo and Angeles, after
unsuccesful attempts using Cytotec, an anti-ulcer medication with an abortifacient effect, had her
abdomen massaged to induce abortion but there was no effect until her seventh month. Then she
took a drug which induced labor and alone, she pulled out a dead foetus, which she did not
realize had by then badly deteriorated in her womb. The scalp of the foetus was torn off in the
process. She was saved from bleeding to death when her landlord found her slumped in her room
and got help.
Many forms of drug-induced abortion attempts as well as traditional methods were employed by
the women who could not afford to go to a doctor for safe abortion procedures. Abortion is
illegal in the Philippines, apart from being too costly, inaccessible and risky. As clients rarely
used condoms, repeated abortions were usual and exposed especially younger women to health
complications. The fatalistic psyche of Filipinos, oftentimes attributed to the ideological content
of Hispanic colonization, contributed to putting women in vulnerable circumstances such as
those in prostitution, at risk of unwanted pregnancies.
Drug use and alcohol consumption dominated the lives of the women. Most of them regard these
practices as part of their trade, and a number said that consuming drugs and alcohol made them
less shy and able to do the sexual acts required by their clients. In the bars of Angeles and
Olongapo, the women earned their income by enticing clients to buy ladies drinks from which
they got commissions. The more they drank, the more they earned was the philosophy. Drugs, on
the other hand, were pushed by their clients, boyfriends and colleagues. The most commonly
used were tranquilizers, marijuana, cough syrup and shabu.
Anemia and respiratory infections as well as stress-induced illnesses plagued many women.
Their life and work style aggravated their malnutrition and general ill health.
Violence against women and girls
Sexual harassment, abuse and rape were normal parts of womens lives in the baselands. The
popular notion prevailed that women in prostitution could not be raped, and when it did happen,
they were blamed for inviting the violence. In the WEDPRO study of 1990, a number of the
respondents pointed to abusive childhood and sexual abuse from male relatives. Some of them in
fact were sold to the casa by their own kin.
Verbal and psychological abuse and economic deprivations characterized the lives of women and
girls in prostitution.
The ways in which women experienced abortions also included various ways in which they had
internalized the violence against them. The ill treatment they received from their boyfriends,
families and the medical workers all constitute violence as well.
All the violence that the women experienced during the period of the US bases in the Philippines
has not been documented. Moreover, women victims and survivors of violence did not receive
any form of support or benefit from crisis intervention programs addressing the negative impact
of all their experiences, after the bases withdrew from the country.
Economic impact
For the cities of Olongapo and Angeles, the economic activity generated by the presence of the
bases and the movement of the US military was the main motor that sustained the city and the
surrounding areas. A local economy centered on providing for the needs of the military stunted
the development of a sound economic base for the Filipino population. A complicit local
government regulated the entertainment, including prostitution industry, and a large part of the
retail trade and even housing sector was geared towards US military clientele.
Angeles, it was said, had an edge over Olongapo. At the time of the study done by WEDPRO in
1990, Angeles boasted of an alive furniture industry, plus other crafts, including homemade
delicacies for which Pampanga is known. Yet admittedly Angeles just like Olongapo
The disparity in strength of the US and Philippine currencies created an artificial if modest and
precarious prosperity for the owners of clubs and resorts, the peddlers of women and children,
the souvenir and fast food sectors. A trade in PX goods constituted a large part of market
activities and created wants and needs among the local population that took a toll on their already
difficult personal economic situations.
For the women working in the clubs, meager and irregular earnings that depended on the number
and size of ships calling, life could be an economic see-saw of brief periods when money flowed
and longer lean periods when debts would accumulate in order to pay the rent, children
schooling and other such basic needs.
This dependency on the bases became dramatically felt when a long-dormant volcano, Mount
Pinatubo exploded and wiped out the cities and the outlying areas. Some parts of Pampanga and
Zambales, where Angeles and Olongapo are, respectively, were badly hit and the agricultural
lands as well as other businesses were covered by tons of lahar. Then it became clear that the
base cities, when squeezed, had nothing muc to offer than their women and girls in the
entertainment industry. To date, resettlement areas still pockmarked the urban blight of
Angeles, right outside the former glamorous Clark. Aetas, the indigenous people who lived in the
Pampanga and Zambales area, had been forced into the not-so-gentle Manila, most of the living
off their meager income from begging.
Environmental damage
In both cities, the issue of toxic wastes remain, and the organizations cited above, together with
CATW and other peoples organizations continue to expose the environmental damage wrought
by the presence of the bases in those areas, as well as demand of the US and Philippine
governments to be responsible for the ecological disaster that the bases left behind. Accounts of
injuries, illnesses and even deaths have been reported in the former baselands.
III Experiences of women in Olongapo bars, 1972-92
The following report is a result of a focus group discussion conducted by BUKLOD in April
1997.
Background of the women
Five of the six women from different provinces, mostly from the Visayas in the central part of
the Philippines. Three had come to Olongapo in the early 1970s, three in the 1980s, to work as
waitresses or household help but eventually ended up in bar work. One woman was an
Amerasian herself whose father was an African American. One woman had been married to a
serviceman who divorced her when he was back in the US. All of the women without exception
had Amerasian children.
The servicemen

Most of the servicemen were young white or black Americans. A racial divide marked the
establishments in the towns of Olongapo where the area with bars for the black Americans was
known as the jungle. The women too were known as either for the use of whites or blacks.
Officers also frequented the bars, even admirals. Officers were known as choosier clients for
whom Madams would select classier women, sometimes sending them to the officers hotel
rooms or houses. However, officers would also sit in the bars with their men. One of the women
was once taken by an officer to a nearby island where military exercises were being held and
after sex with her, asked if she wanted to male extra money by servicing his boys. One
womans regular client was the base chaplain. All the women agreed that the marines were
particularly bad clients, prone to rough or violent behavior.
The Vietnam and Gulf War periods
Particularly during those times, men exhibited what the women called crazy behavior, using
many women a day, some as high as ten women. There was a lot of drug use and the men also
made the women take them. The women cited speed, hash, cocaine. There was the case of
the man who, during sex, bit off the womans clitoris and who then bled heavily and had to be
taken to the hospital.
Health issues
The Social Hygiene Clinic was a joint US Navy and Olongapo City government operation with
the US providing drugs, other medical products and testing, including for HIV/AIDS. In 1987,
all the women working in the bars were ordered to submit to HIV/AIDS testing. There had been
no previous explanation or orientation nor were results later given to the women. As regards
STDs, the women knew that the name of any woman found with STD and that of the club would
be posted inside the base for the servicemen to avoid. Nevertheless, most of the men refused to
use condoms.
All the women had had episodes of STDs and knew of no bar women who hadnt. Particularly
the USS Midway was suspect and women heard that half of the men on the Midway had STDs.
After it had been in town, the incidence of STDs often rose sharply and in one bar, all of the
women tested positive after Midway men had barfined the women. Some men said to the women
that it served them right to be infected by men.
All of the women had had abortions, usually through uterine massage which was very painful
and left the stomach black and blue, or through the use of catheters. They knew of women who
died as a result of abortions. When women went to the hospital for treatment of complications
from abortions, they would often be made to wait and bleed or suffer pain before being attended
to.
Acts of violence
When she was very young, one of the women went to visit a Filipino woman friend whose US
serviceman boyfriend happened to be visiting with a friend. were also in the house. At some
point, the other man began to make physical advances and then went on to rape her as the others
looked on. It was her first sexual encounter. She remembered how the men laughed as she left
the house.
Women were often hurt, hit or raped if they resisted anal sex or giving blow jobs, clients putting
objects in their vaginas or other acts. A client tried to choke a woman, another bought a belt on
the way to the hotel room to use on the woman, another shoved a bottle into a womans vagina,
there was verbal abuse during sex. A womans ear had to be sewn in the hospital after a client bit
it almost off. He gave her $200 in compensation.
If clients were angry, they falsely accused the woman to the police or to the bar manager of
having stolen something from him, or to the Social Hygiene Clinic that she had infected him. For
the women, this meant fines and days of no income, or exposed the women to police abuse. In
some cases, the client had the woman fired from the club. The men also sometimes refused to
pay after sex, one man said he had already bought her three hamburger. Others stole back, while
the woman slept or was out of the room, the money that had been paid the woman for sex.
Murders of women
One of the worst murders of a woman was by her steady boyfriend. She was found with part of
her uterus scraped out by a broken bottle and with three barbacue sticks stabbed into her vagina.
She was the neighbor and friend of one of the women in the discussion group who saw her dead
body.The serviceman was arrested and imprisoned for one year.
Another brutal murder was of a streetwalker who had had police protection. She was found killed
and dismembered with her breasts cut off. It was thought that the killers were police punishing
and making an example of her for having stopped giving them a cut of her earnings.
There were other murders where the men were given into the custody of the Navy and sent away.
In one case, the murderer got off by paying the womans family about $2000.
How the women felt they were regarded
The men bought women because the women were cheap, because they could make the women
do things even if the women didnt want to., because they were not American women, because
the men could hurt and insult them and women could do nothing.
Amerasian children
Sometimes, if men acknowledged that a child was theirs, they might send money for a few
months or even a year, but the time would come when the money would syop coming and the
child would be forgotten.
IV Responses of womens organizations
Some few womens organizations have taken up the issues of military prostitution and the impact
of US military presence on women and children: Womens Education, Development,
Productivity and Research Organization (WEDPRO), GABRIELA, BUKLOD, the Coalition
Against Trafficking in Women (CATW). They have taken part in press conferences, rallies and
demonstrations as well as implemented in the case of WEDPRO and BUKLOD, concrete
projects on the ground to assist the women who worked in the entertainment industry and their
families who had been economically dislocated due to the bases closure.
Socio-economic programs
WEDPRO in particular was involved in the post-bases conversion study. To date, only
WEDPRO with its womens cooperative whose membership are from former bar women in
Angeles and BUKLOD in Olongapo are the ones working on the ground to address the
continuing impact of the US presence in the country and to assist the women from their base-
dependent lives to lives of autonomy and sense of self-dignity. While there are many non-
government organizations in the Philippines, work with women in the entertainment sector
towards alternative life and work style remains a marginal concern as the understanding of
sexual exploitation in prostitution from the human rights perspective needs more advocacy.
Other womens NGOs operating outside the former baselands serve as a support network,
providing assistance in medical, crisis/counseling and legal needs of the women and their
families. These efforts however are small and scattered compared to the deep impact of the US
bases presence on women in prostitution and their families.
BUKLOD was established in 1987. BUKLOD has non-formal education and awareness raising
and training programs, educational scholarship to some of the Amerasian children of BUKLOD
members, livelihood activities and skills training such as sewing. It also conducts research.
Beginning last year, in collaboration with a womens health NGO, BUKLOD set up a
community-based clinic and pioneered the skilling of grassroots women as health educators.
At the time of the bases, BUKLOD offered night care services for the children of the bar women,
temporary shelter and other crisis interventions It carried out political and feminist education for
the women. It also lobbied strongly against the anti-women ordinances and policies that
emanated from the local government, and joined forces with the anti-bases movement.
BUKLODs organizing efforts among bar women at the height of the bases presence is
commendable and has served as inspiration to women in Angeles City who began organizing
around the time when the bases were to be finally closed down.
WEDPRO on the other hand began its involvement with the women of Angeles City as an
aftermath of the bases withdrawal. When no programs were forthcoming from the national and
local governments despite the promise of then President Aquino, WEDPRO assisted a group of
bar women and urban poor women in their cooperative building. This first group has since then
evolved to become an autonomous organization. In 1993, WEDPRO assisted once more another
group, the Nagkakaisang Kababaihan ng Angeles City (United Women of Angeles City or
NAGKA). WEDPRO helped organize NAGKA and just like in the first group, extended support
in developing micro enterprises for the women, coupled with micro enterprise training.
WEDPRO also has developed micro credit facilities for the women, and trained them in
cooperative building. Non-formal education on various womens issues and advocacy also form
part of WEDPROs programs in Angeles City. as part of its continuing advocacy, WEDPRO
does research on prostitution and sex trafficking and has published information on these topics.
WEDPRO, with the help of other womens NGO, put up a community-based clinic and does
health training in reproductive rights, sexually transmitted diseases including HIV/AIDS.
Advocacy and Networking
CATW and its network have protested to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and have met
with DFA officials to demand that the entry of US and other military vessels for R and R shore
leave be disallowed. These same organizations campaigned for many years for the rights and
welfare of Filipino Amerasian children of US military personnel.
On the occasion of the World Congress Against Child Sexual Exploitation, CATW met with the
delegation of Pentagon to express its concerns on the practices of sexual exploitation behavior of
US servicemen in Asia. CATW and BUKLOD coordinate with the Asia-Pacific Center for
Justice and Peace in Washington, DC that lobbies there on the issues of military prostitution in
connection with R and R, on the rights of Amerasian children, and on issues of toxic wastes
left in the Philippines by the military bases.
It is nearly five years since the US bases and facilities left the territory of the Philippines, yet the
lives of the women and their communities who intimately encountered the daily realities and
indignities of living and working in the baselands offer rich lessons for those who still have the
US bases in their national territories.
V Conclusion
The US bases in the Philippines had gone, but for all intents and purposes, the politics of
dependency between the two governments continue. Militarism has taken new shapes, and the
various trade agreements, e.g., GATT and organizations, e.g., World Trade Organization, which
globalizes economies and therefore societies, is another form of conquest. Security which is
often tied up with the concept of national defense, is now being used to describe food security
and ecological security.
It must also be said that militarism does not happen only in the case of the presence of foreign
troops in a national territory. In the Philippines, especially during the Marcos rule of martial law,
militarism took on a very local, indigensous face with not a little help of course from his US
friends. This militarism has also characterized the subsequent governments of Corazon Aquino
and Fidel V. Ramos
Lessons of the bases conversion in the Philippines
The bases conversion program, or what seemed to be that, in the Philippines offers rich lessons
for other countries, wanting to rid of foreign bases and facilities within their national territories.
After the Legislative-Executive Bases Council (LEBC), the body convened under the Office of
the President in 1990, submitted its recommendations to how best to convert the former
baselands into productive, humane communities for the peoples affected. The volumes of reports
gathered dust somewhere in some offices.
WEDPROs bases conversion program was approved as a priority program, along with the
reports on the base workers, indigenous peoples and urban poor communities, by President
Aquino, but received no concrete support from that government or the Ramos administration.
Instead of allocating resources for the implementation of the programs, particularly the group
called the human resource development consulting firms, the local and national governments
and the business sector proceeded to open the baselands to foreign multinationals and enticed
foreign capital to partake of the incentives offered by the local governments.
Now, the conversion programs are but a series of industrial complexes dominated by Japanese,
Korean and Taiwanese business groups; in Angeles and Olongapo, duty free shops offering US
products are the main attractions, together with plans to build a Disneyland, a retirement village
for foreign old men whose pension will certainly enable them to live like kings in these areas,
perhaps complete with women as their sexual and domestic slaves. Clark will host another
international airport, and Olongapo will have a Hong Kong-style free port. As one woman said,
before it used to be either black or white Americans, now, well have children of different
colors, ala-UN! In Angeles City, Fields Avenue which was the redlight district of the city and
located just outside the gate of the former airbase, continues to breathe a new type of
entertainment, this time with Australina and European pubs and clubs and now, Japanese
karaoke bars. Prostitution and trafficking and other forms of sexual exploitation continues, even
as the ashes of Mount Pinatubo linger in the streets and in resettlement areas. HIV/AIDS and
other sexually transmitted infections are a reality, and many forms of violence against women
and children still inhabit the lives of many.
The bases are gone,, but militarism, this time in the name of industrialization and progress, under
an era of peace and in more subtle but insidious cultural invasion, continues.
When the struggle to oust the bases gained victory in 1991, few of those progressive social
movements continued their vigilance to monitor the development in the baselands. One of the
lessons that WEDPRO and BUKLOD, for example, learned from the our experiences, is that it is
not enough to remove the bases from our territory. A fundamental responsibility is our continued
vigilance to insist on peoples participation in bases conversion program and the responsibility
for social movements to ensure that these programs are suited to the needs and aspirations of the
people especially the women who suffered such exploitation during the presence of the bases.
These needs and aspirations must be anchored on a development strategy that makes the country
a self-reliant society where dignity and sovereignty are essential components of long-term
transformation.
The necessity of continuing and sustained struggles and advocacy and building linkages across
the region and elsewhere are important steps to ensure that the US bases once and for all leave
our territories, but more than that, to ensure a global world where womens bodies are respected
and the lives of communities sustained beyond the glitz of shops and malls and clubs and resorts.
*****
REFERENCES
Lee, Lynn and WEDPRO. From Carriers to Communities, Alternative Employment, Economic
Livelihood and Human Resource Development The NGO Version of the Bases Conversion
Program for Women. WEDPRO, Quezon City, Philippines, March 1992.
Pearl S. Buck Foundation and Task Force on Amerasians. Agencies Collaborating Together with
Amerasians, their Families and Communities A Project Proposal. Manila, Philippines, 1996.
Miralao, Virginia A., Celia O. Carlos and Aida Fulleros Santos. Women Entertainers in Angeles
and Olongapo: A Survey Report. (Womens Education, Development, Productivity & Research
Organization (WEDPRO) and Katipunan ng Kababaihan para sa Kalayaan (KALAYAAN),
Quezon City, Philippines, 1990.
Sturdevant, Saundra and Brenda Stotlsfuz. Let the Good Times Roll: The sale of womens sexual
labor around US military bases in the Philippines, Okinawa and the southern part of Korea.
University of California Press, 1991.

Source: http://catwap.wordpress.com/resources/speeches-papers/prostitution-and-the-bases-a-
continuing-saga-of-exploitation/