SUBIC AND CLARK

Subic and Clark
Have witnessed war
Both as battleground
And as launching pad
For death missions
In the Pacific
And faraway Vietnam

It is not the strife
Nor the carnage of war
For which we remember
The deep water port
And the cavalry
That’s known as Clark

We can now banish
The dread of war
As now we speak
Of Subic and Clark
As the finest monuments
Of patriotic price
First it was Recto

Who charged America
That military bases
In Subic and Clark
Were Imperialist eyesores
Which stained and discolored
Nationalist pride.

Pimentel and Tanada
Locked arms with Salonga
NA dthey battered the line
Of solons who could see
Only false tinseled prosperity
And with one mighty shout
Redeemed Subic and Clark

They accused Uncle Sam
Of storing warheads
And lethal ingredients
For producing fission
And for defoliating earth
But his condescending reply was
“neither confirm nor deny”

Those gallant warriors –
For the worthy cause
Have been proven right
As the eager investors
Gave light to Subic and Clark
Which now pulsate
In productive trade

In the halls of the Senate
Were shifted hot debate
Those for extension asked “how much?”
Those fof national integrity
Replied agringly,
Rebt is chain – NO – we’re sovereign!
Debate about extension
Of the term of the lease
Provoked acerbic debate
On both sides of the ocean,
The lessee with riches tantalizing
The wakened owner firmly refusing

As diplomats parlayed
Base parasites dramatized
Hotelier, hospitality girl,
Dancer, musician and laborer
In fear of livelihood
Shouted and rented

In nineteen eighty – nine
T’was with swelling pride
That Secretary of Justice
Got from diplomat Platt
A list of structures immobilized
In Subic and Clark

Immobilized structure
Adhere to the land
And when the bases do revert
Shall pertain to the host
By the law of the situs
Or by the law of nations

Symbolic obedience
To domestic law
Brought bursting jubilation
To the deprived nation
But proffered rent and military aid,
Soon dangled and dazzled
So now we hail
The solons with vision
Who braved the scorn
Of those without spine –
They have proved once more
That Uncle Sam’s eagle
Can be shot down