Mt. Pinatubo Memorial Day proposed

CLARK FREEPORT, Pampanga, Philippines  – The Pampanga provincial board has passed a resolution declaring every June 15 to 21 as Mt. Pinatubo Eruption Commemoration Week.

This move is complemented in Congress with House Bill 3948 seeking to declare every June 15 as Mt. Pinatubo Memorial Day nationwide and a non-working holiday in Pampanga.

This developed as Mabalacat town tourism officer and local historian Guy Hilbero and professor Robbie Tantingco, head of the Kapampangan department of the Holy Angel University, have launched a search for Abraham Valencia Pineda who was born on board USS Abraham Lincoln, after whom he was named, on June 22, 1991, seven days after the Pinatubo eruption.

Pineda’s birth was documented in a photo spread in the 1992 yearbook of USS Abraham Lincoln.

“Abraham’s birth on the warship is of historical interest because the USS Abraham Lincoln was on its maiden mission to carry out what was described as the largest peacetime sealift evacuation of the American military (of people) fleeing from the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo,” Hilbero said.

The evacuation was dubbed Operation Fiery Vigil, with the yearbook saying that “a 23-ship armada, led by USS Lincoln, moved nearly 18,000 people during 10 days of operations.”

“The climax of the evacuation came June 22 when Abraham Valencia Pineda was born on board the ship to a couple being evacuated. It wasn’t clear whether the baby was Amerasian,” the yearbook said.

According to Hilbero, the US Navy itself celebrated Pineda’s birth by naming him the warship’s “youngest honorary crewmember.”

Hilbero and Tantingco want Pineda, now 21, featured in a book to be titled “A Volcano in Our Backyard: Pinatubo Stories” which they are writing in time for the first commemoration of Mt. Pinatubo Week.

“Unfortunately, the USS Abraham Lincoln yearbook merely cited Abraham’s birth and said nothing more, so we have launched a search for him, ” Hilbero said.

The US military abandoned Clark, its biggest air force base outside the US mainland, in 1991 as Pinatubo was poised to erupt.

The following year, the Philippine Senate terminated the US-Philippine Military Bases Agreement that also led to the closure of all US military facilities in the country.

Meanwhile, third district Rep. Aurelio Gonzalez authored HB 3948 declaring June 15 of every year as Mt. Pinatubo Memorial Day, which he wants to be a special non-working holiday in Pampanga.

Gonzalez lamented that many teenagers no longer remember the “lessons from the eruption of Mt. Pina­tubo.”

“Pampanga was one of the hardest-hit provinces but Kapampangans slowly recovered from the devastation and so much could be learned from this,” he said.

“Our rising from the devastation remains a testimony to the Kapampangan people’s resilience, iron will, and courage in the most trying times. We should not lose track of these traits,” he added.