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They Will Never Be Forgotten
First Published: Reflections - Philippine Daily InquirerTBA Publication Date: November 1993 Author's Name: Father Shay Cullen SSC There is still much to reflect about and learn from rejection of the Bases treaty last 16 September. The fight over the bases swept across the pages of every Philippine newspaper and magazine. It has been fought as a battle of the banners on the streets and on the air waves. There have been brave and fearless editorials and frankly some very servile ones in tabloids and broad-sheet news rags. Leaders from whom we could have expected patriotic statements and pronouncements about the historic moment of freedom, national dignity and self-reliant pride lowered themselves by walking in the gutter to please the foreigners. But we live and learn. This column has long stood for a rejection of the treaty and a withdrawal of the bases. I am 21 years working in Olongapo City and Zambales and what I once thought was never possible has come to be. It was once thought that the Filipinos were incapable of throwing off the foreign bases and the domination they brought. But as the Inquirer editorial said last September 17 there were 12 men good and true who closed a chapter on the American military presence in our land. Those 12 good men represents the goodness of millions more. My campaign against the bases began in 1982 when I first became aware of the child prostitution syndicates operating with impunity in Olongapo. How could I have been so blind after being here so long I asked? How about others? I was then convinced that the truth must come out about the evils of the bases and the commercial sex industry. There was of course official denial and cover up of child and women exploitation and continual pressure on me to stop talking to the radio and TV and in later years to stop writing in the Inquirer. Yet the Inquirer bravely stood by its principles and fearless views and continued to publish this column and never gave into the pressure brought to bear on them by politicians and business people who were affected by the exposes. The Inquirer has only continued to grow to be the most widely read and the most respected newspaper in the Philippines. In those days of Martial law (and even after) exposing child prostitution and exploitation of women was not very popular and to be anti-base earned the red badge of being labelled a communist. But I was encouraged to continue by the flood of support letters, phone calls and personal messages. When I saw the humiliating spectacle of the pro-bases rally in the Luneta on television I could have wept. I was hurt when I heard politicians using the human suffering of the Pinatubo victims as stage props for their selfish ambitions and I cringed at the sight of a banner of the fundamentalists that proclaimed JESUS LOVES THE BASES. I was stupefied when I heard the Catholic bishop standing in the presence of such a banner proclaiming that there social costs of the bases were insignificant. I have to ask that Bishop how many small six year old children must be sexually abused by foreign sailors before the social costs do become significant and the church takes a stand against it. How many women must be slapped around, beaten and sexually assaulted and infected with the killer disease AIDS to make the costs significant? Is this what Jesus Loves? One thing is sure, He loves the non-ratification of the treaty that will hopefully end much of this abuse and exploitation. The sooner the US begins withdrawing the better but conversion initiatives can begin at once. The Senators who remained steadfast and have written their names into history. A referendum to overturn their decision is doomed to fail. They will never be forgotten.
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