My first trip to the Philippines was in May 1984. I was going there to meet my father-in-law for the very first time. We were stationed at Kadena AB Okinawa Japan and we took a Space A flight from there to Clark AB Angeles City Philippines. I wanted to take a bus or something to go down to the province where he lived, but my father-in-law and my wife, Lita, said that there was too much guerrilla activity between Clark and the village where they lived, which is called Tambis 1, Saint Bernard, Southern Leyte, Philippines. It was decided that it would be safer for them to come up to Clark to met us instead. Later, after I found out just how long of a trip it was, I was glad they decided I shouldn’t go down there. Along with my father-in-law was one of my wife’s first cousins, Benito and one of his daughters Minerva. Minerva was only 8 years old at the time. We met at the main gate of Clark and got them on base to look around. We stayed at a small hotel just outside of Friendship Gate on the right side of the road.
While staying at this hotel I seen a couple of things that I had never seen in the US. First of all Ferdinand Marcos was President and there was Martial Law in the Philippines. The first afternoon we was there, I saw a lot of soldiers walking down the street carrying M16 rifles. I must say that it made me a bit nervous, but there was no incident.
The next day we would all be heading for the capital city of Manila. It was still a bit early, so we decided to just kick back in the room and do a little bit of talking and catching up for Lita and her father. She had not seen him in about 8 1/2 years. While we were in the room, Minerva was trying to teach me the Tagalog language. We were using comic books and I was trying to pronounce all the words. I don’t know what I was saying, but it sure did tickle Minerva.
The next day as we were going back on base, I saw a guy selling caps. He must have had 25-30 caps stacked on top of his head. I bought 2 of them for, I think, P50 total. One of the hats I wanted to buy was close to the bottom of the stack, but he didn’t seem to mind unstacking them all to get to it. The first hat had on it “Clark AB – Angeles City Philippines” and the 2nd one read “Balut -The Egg with Legs”. I had to have one of those.
On base we got what they called a Philippine Rabbit Bus to go to Manila. Hey, I figure a bus is a bus, right? Not! These buses get their name because they go quick as rabbits and dodge in an out of traffic. It’s an experience not for the faint of heart. Once, during the trip, we pulled over for a bathroom (CR) break. Not a restroom in sight. The guys walked over to the fence, turned their backs to the bus, whipped it out and let it go. No women got out at that time. What was so funny to me though was that there was a young lady, oh about 16 or 17 years old I guess, sitting on one of the fence posts looking up and down the line of guys peeing. She was just nodding her head up and down while she was looking. That was funny to me and I remember it even 33 1/2 years later.
We were only going to Manila for a day because today (my father-in-law) had to get back to his rice fields as soon as possible. It was his sole income (besides what we gave to him). When we got to Manila we went to Rizal Park (aka Luneta Park) and had our picture taken under the statue of Jose Rizal, Hero of the Philippines. There were relatives in Manila so Benito contacted them and they gave us a tour of the city. At one point during the tour we went inside a very large church called the Quiapo Church(but has since changed names to The Minor Basilica of the Black Nazarene or also called Saint John the Baptist Parish). It is very beautiful inside that church and so big. The biggest church I had ever been in, and I’m from Texas.
Sometime during the trip when we were sightseeing and we saw a demonstration. It looked to be an Anti-American demonstration, so everyone in the car made me hunch down out of sight, just to be safe. No incidents occurred.
Next, we went back to Rizal Park to have a picnic. We stopped to buy some things besides the few things that we had bought at the shoppette on base. We found a nice picnic area and it was a nice sunny, but not so hot, day. A perfect day for a picnic and spending time with family.
Later that day we finally had to leave because tatay, Benito and Minerva had to leave the next day to get back. We took a rabbit bus back and did have to make another bathroom stop, but no girl on a fence post this time. We did have one old lady get out to pee though. She just squatted and peed. I guess she was not wearing underwear, but I didn’t want to think about it. I still don’t.
The next morning we got them over to the bus stop, said our goodbyes, cried our tears and let them go. We didn’t know at the time, but we would not see tatay again for 8 more years, and even then, it was just Lita, not me. I would not get to see him again until the year 2000, 16 years from that time.
After they left we went back to the hotel to get some rest after our journey. The next day we would be going to Baguio City. Baguio City is up in the mountains. There was a US resort up there called Camp John Hay. We were going up there to stay for a few days to enjoy the mountain air, see the sites and just relax.
Our scary good trip coming next.
