Burial of veterans in US-funded cemetery suspended

The Gate of Clark Cemetery where remains of US war veterans are interred. E.I. REYMOND T. OREJAS/INQUIRER CENTRAL LUZON

CLARK FREEPORT, Philippines – The government-owned Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA), which oversees more than 100,000 hectares of former American base lands, has suspended the burial of US military service veterans and Philippine Scouts at Clark Veterans Cemetery (CVC) here pending the preparation of restoration plans for the area.

Arnel Paciano Casanova, BCDA president and chief executive officer, confirmed the interim policy on Saturday when he addressed the family of Roy Edwin Ralph, who had inquired if his remains could be interred at CVC. Ralph fought in the Iraq war.

“The guidelines on the maintenance and use of CVC have to first be made,” Casanova told the Inquirer in a phone interview. He did not say when or how long the policy would be in effect.

The guidelines, he said, would be prepared by a technical working group (TWG) consisting of the Virginia-based American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC), the BCDA and the state-owned Clark Development Corp. (CDC).

Casanova said the BCDA had written these agencies to organize the TWG.

He said initial discussions had considered making CVC a memorial for the men and women who fought for freedom and democracy.

The ABMC and the BCDA, including CDC, now manage CVC after it was relinquished by Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 285 (VFW 285) following a memorandum of understanding on the rehabilitation and upkeep of CVC, which was signed in December 2013 in Manila by Casanova and US Ambassador to the Philippines Philip Goldberg.

The agreement took place after US President Barack Obama, in January 2013, signed US Senate Bill No. 2320, or the Remembering America’s Forgotten Veterans Cemetery Act of 2012, which sets aside $5 million for the maintenance of CVC.

VFW 285 has been taking up the cudgels for fallen comrades since 1994, or three years after the US Air Force withdrew troops and pulled out of Clark days after Mt. Pinatubo erupted in June 1991.

The fund for the upkeep was a result of a lobby waged by VFW 285 and CVC Restoration Association (CVCRA).

The 7-hectare CVC, which was established in 1950, holds almost 8,600 remains, which were transferred from Fort McKinley in Makati City after World War II.

“In addition to the 650 Philippine Scouts, there are thousands of US veterans from the US Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force and Coast Guard, and their dependents who comprise the preponderance of burials. There are veterans interred at CVC who had served in every American conflict since the Spanish-American War, [which] include the Philippine American War and World War I, the survivors who died after World War II, and the Korean, Vietnam and Iraq wars,” CVCRA said.

More than 2,100 unknown soldiers are also buried there.

Goldberg had said “those interred [at CVC] served their countries faithfully and honorably, and their service and sacrifices will always be remembered.” Tonette Orejas, Inquirer Central Luzon