Lest we forget

A NARRATIVE of victory over the direst of adversities.

That has come to be the Pinatubo story of the Kapampangan, told and retold at each anniversary of the second greatest cataclysm of the 20^th century. Naturally, finding greater, if dramatic, resonance at its 25^th year this month.

Never forget, Gov. Lilia G. Pineda urged her constituency, the valuable lessons learned, the values imbued with the Pinatubo experience: “They should be kept alive for future generations to learn from."

Indeed, worth remembering: that which has been hailed as “the triumph of the indomitable courage and resiliency of the Kapampangan,” as much celebrated in books – two I was privileged to have cobbled: Pinatubo: Triumph of the Kapampangan Spirit (2008) and Agyu Tamu: Turning Tragedy into Triumph subheaded The Pinatubo Story of Angeles City (2011) – as already impacted in the cabalen’s collective consciousness.

That, which President Fidel V. Ramos, hailed as proof positive of the can-do spirit of the Kapampangan, the Filipino too, which will serve him in good stead "to work harder and strive higher" to help make the Philippines a first world country.

“Kaya! (We can)” thundered – okay, in the spirit of the moment, erupted – across   the LausGroup Events Center to the challenge of the former President, the guest of honor at the "Celebration of the Triumph of the Kapampangan's Unity and Resiliency" Wednesday night.

We survived the worst. We can do the most. What can stop us?

The feel-good atmosphere permeating the province at each anniversary of the Mount Pinatubo eruptions and the aftermath do indeed make the strongest motivation to aspire for some higher level of development in the quality of life of our people.

So, must we go on in our celebrations so that, as 25^th anniversary execom chair Levy P. Laus put it, the “wealth of experience from the calamity will not be lost to young people today, most of whom were born after the eruptions.”

“A community is supposed to have a collective memory of significant times and events in its life from which it can celebrate and erect memorials for posterity,” Laus said in his message.

A collective memory, indeed, of that which drew the best from us during the worst of times. But not a selective memory so as to consign to oblivion that which drew the worst from us during those damned times.

For the Pinatubo story is as much of triumph as of turpitude.

So we remember…

At the American-abandoned Clark Air Base, what the wrath of the volcano failed to destroy human greed plundered.

Someone named “Hacot” – as all H-overminding Kapampangans say it – cleaned and cleared Clark not so much of the ash and sand that buried it but of anything of value that remained in it, not even the toilet bowls and kitchen sinks spared.

The CAB Hospital, reputedly the best-equipped in the Asia-Pacific region reduced to a ghostly apparition.

A most profitable, if novel enterprise, that arose from the devastated base: the total demolition of damaged buildings, the scrap – galvanized iron roofing, wood panels and ceilings, parquet and tile flooring, steel beams – contracted out to junk dealers, at neither cost nor profit to the government.

The initial engineering interventions to stem lahar flows – from sabo dams to earthen dikes, from re-channeling and dredging rivers to scraping their banks – collectively derided as “ampaw” – ever short of the project specifications thus shorn of any effect; prime sources of corruption, birthing the so-called “Pajero Gang” among the contractors and contactors most favored by public works officials.

How about local government officials finding profit from the devastation? From the donations – in relief goods and cash – diverted from the intended beneficiaries, or replaced with more of the same already-nauseating 555 sardines and cheap noodles.

Local government officials too moonlighting as real estate brokers in the negotiation for the resettlement sites, and thereafter as sub-contractors, if not main contactors, in the construction of houses where again the sub-standard became the operational norm.

No, “tumubo, tumabo sa Bulkang Pinatubo” was no idle blabber. It was gospel truth for those times. The enterprising turning huge profit from the capital that was the misery of the people.            

And lest we forget, how about those who called for the abandonment of the province “to let nature take its course” and uproot the population to “new Kapampangan communities” in Mindoro, Bukidnon, and some other parts of Mindanao? Why, one most esteemed cabalen even went on local radio to sound that call from the national government.

Yes, they too are remembered in every Pinatubo Day celebration. With even greater recognition, loftier accolades, than those who actually suffered, struggled, survived and excelled.

Twenty-five years after, the Pinatubo story is still evolving.