DOT gears up for Clark centennial

CLARK FIELD, Pampanga — The Department of Tourism (DOT) has started preparations for a year-long celebration of the 100th founding anniversary of this former US military base, from September this year to September 2003.

Tourism Secretary Richard Gordon is personally supervising the preparations for the Clark centennial, which is expected to lure former US military men, both active and retired, and their families back for a sentimental visit.

Emmanuel Angeles, Clark Development Corp. (CDC) president and chief executive officer, said his office will undertake projects to preserve and rehabilitate many historical sites left here by the Americans "to promote ecotourism, culture and the arts" at the Clark special economic zone.

He said the year-long celebration will culminate on Sept. 1, 2003, exactly 100 years since the late US President Theodore Roosevelt officially declared 7,669 acres of land here as a US military reservation.

Historically, however, the Americans first set foot on Clark in 1901 when they utilized it as a grazing area for their cavalry horses. They named the place Fort Stotsenburg in honor of Col. John Stotsenburg, commander of the First Nebraska Volunteer Regiment, which helped "fight" the Spaniards in the Philippines in 1898.

Gordon is expected here for the launch of the preparations on Feb. 22, when the Clark Centennial Committee will also be officially created.

The committee will submit to the National Historical Institute a list of proposed historical sites within Clark.

The sites include the original marker of Fort Stotsenberg, the ammunition dump, barn houses, the weather observatory, the Clark cemetery, the first Japanese kamikaze airfield and the pre-war artillery area.