Clark cemetery given a new lease on life

CLARK FIELD, Pampanga — Thanks to the Clark Development Corp. (CDC), the 20.3-acre Clark cemetery, which has over 8,000 tombs, including that of one Charles Ehrnberg who passed away on Nov. 21, 1897, has been given a new lease on life.

The state-owned CDC, whose jurisdiction includes the cemetery within the Clark Special Economic Zone (CSEZ), has junked plans to bar further burials there and convert the site into a mere tourist attraction.

This means that American expatriates, who are members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) based in nearby Angeles City, will continue to have domain over the cemetery which is the only area within this former US Air Force Base where the American flag still flutters alongside the Philippine flag.

While workers have been busy these days trimming the bermuda grass carpeting the cemetery, most of the over 8,000 tombs topped by uniform white crosses are likely to have no visitors on Nov. 1.

Majority of the tombs belong to the dead long forgotten by their relatives and friends.

Still, the cemetery should be a point of interest for anyone visiting or doing business at Clark. The tombstones weave stories of the lives of people at the turn or the early part of the 20th century.

The tomb of Charles Ehrnberg, for example, provides a clue of how difficult it was to ship bodies of foreigners back to their homeland at the time he died on Nov. 21, 1897. His tomb’s marker says he used to be a civilian quartermaster corps saddler, probably working for US cavalry men who, in 1902, found Fort Stotenberg at Clark as suitable for horse pasturing.

Records of the VFW show that while the Clark cemetery contains the remains of mostly Americans who died at the turn of the century, the cemetery itself was founded between 1947 and 1950. During those years, the remains of the dead, together with their tombstones, were removed from old cemeteries at Fort Stotenberg 1 and 2, also within the Clark area, and from Fort McKinley and the Sangley Point Naval Cemetery and transferred to the present Clark cemetery.

The remains of those who died during World War II were moved to the American cemetery in Manila.

The VFW said Ehrnberg’s body was probably moved from either of the two cemeteries at Fort Stotenberg. "We are trying to find out more about this individual," the group said.

As of June last year, there were 8,379 people buried at the Clark cemetery which has 12,000 plots. Twenty-three US veterans were added in 1998, and another 18 last year.

It used to be that only the Philippine flag was hoisted at the cemetery even when Clark was still occupied by the US Air Force. But a special waiver was granted by the Philippine government upon the request of Maj. Gen. Burns, former commander of the 13th US Air Force, paving the way for the hoisting of the American flag there on March 12, 1984.

Two monuments provide insights into the cemetery’s history. One, a 81-and-a-half-foot tall obelisk reads: "Erected to the memory of US soldiers, sailors and marines by the Ladies Memorial Association of Manila, 1909." The other, a three-foot high rectangular stone with a brass plate that says that the cemetery "contains the remains of non-World War II related remains from the base and other US military cemeteries in Manila."

The monument also described the cemetery as "the last active US Air Force cemetery outside of the United States."

But visitors can’t help but notice tombstones bearing the names apparently of Filipinas, such as Maria Torres who died on Jan. 31, 1925.

Some local folk have theorized that these people were once employees of American soldiers based in the Philippines, or perhaps, their girlfriends who died before their American boyfriends could marry them.