Pinatubo museum being rushed for Apec 2015
CLARK FREEPORT, Philippines—The state-owned Clark Development Corp. (CDC) and private organizations are constructing a lights-and-sound museum featuring how Pampanga, Tarlac and Zambales residents overcame Mt. Pinatubo eruptions and the closure of US bases 23 years ago.
They hope to open the museum during the summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation in 2015.
The museum, which will feature 4-D entertainment systems, is scheduled to be completed in November this year, CDC president Arthur Tugade said on Thursday.
“We want the younger generations to remember how those in Pampanga, Tarlac and Zambales rose from the ashes of Pinatubo with the help of Clark and Subic,” Tugade said.
Among the first to lend support to the project was Levy Laus, chair of San Fernando Pampanga Heritage Foundation (SFPHF) and chair emeritus of Pampanga Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Tugade said CDC had enough funds to start the project, having remitted P220 million last week in dividends to the national government. The agency had generated P2 billion as of May this year.
The Center for Kapampangan Studies (CKS) of Holy Angel University has been contacted to assist in the project.
Mt. Pinatubo erupted on June 15, 1991, spewing 5-6 cubic kilometers of volcanic sediments that flowed down to four major rivers as lahar.
The US pulled out its troops from the former Clark Air Base in Pampanga and Tarlac and from Subic Naval Base in Bataan and Zambales as the volcano heaved back to life. These bases were shut permanently after the Philippine Senate, on Sept. 16, 1991, voted against extending the 1947 Military Bases Agreement.
In the absence of monuments, several books documented the tragedies.
“Pinatubo: Triumph of the Kapampangan Spirit” was published by SFPHF in 2008 and was edited by Caezar Lacson. “Pinatubo, the Volcano in Our Backyard” was published by CKS in 2011 and was written by Robert Tantingco.
The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) published “Fire and Mud” by its director, the late
Dr. Raymundo Punongbayan, providing the scientific information about Mt. Pinatubo’s recorded eruptions and sociological impact of the disaster. The Phivolcs compiled first-hand accounts of victims.
Dr. Kelvin Rodolfo published “Pinatubo and the Politics of Lahar” in 1995. Philippine Daily Inquirer columnist Ceres Doyo documented the journey of Pinatubo Aetas in Zambales.
The economic rebuilding of Central Luzon was ushered by the signing of Republic Act No. 7227 (Bases Conversion and Development Act of 1992) by the late President Corazon Aquino. This law required the government to “accelerate the sound and balanced conversion into alternative productive uses of the Clark and Subic military reservations and their extensions.” Tonette Orejas, Inquirer Central Luzon
