Kiss them, Kate

Despite her accomplishments as former House Representative and current mayor of Olongapo City, Kate Gordon confessed at the other day’s Bulong-Pulungan that she was not used to speaking in public and that she was feeling nervous about talking about her current predicament. It’s just right that she’d feel nervous, speaking as she did about her and her husband Dick (Secretary of Tourism) being branded as "obstructionists," "detractors", and "sourgraping" by forces that are not happy about Kate’s opposition to a project that Kate believes will destroy her city.

The sources of her discomfort are the chair of Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority Tom Payumo and the head of the Bases Conversion Development Authority, Rufo Colayco.

Those two guys may have legitimate reasons for having an international port built in Subic, just adjacent to the city of Olongapo. But Kate does not see the necessity of building the port, which will cost $215-million, and, she told media persons, will be paid for by the younger generations.

She said there are six existing ports in Subic, one of which can be developed and expanded to serve the purposes of the planned port. The planned port, which will be built on a reclaimed area beside the existing international airport, will result in flooding, destruction of marine life, and closure of tourist facilities. "The city of Olongapo will experience flooding, there will be destruction of marine life, and the closing of the best beaches in Zambales and Olongapo," she said.

It is not that Kate is opposing vital projects in Subic. The Clark-Subic international highway she believes, is important and must be supported, but the port must be put on hold, until the President is convinced about why it should be built.

For one thing, neither she, nor the people of Olongapo, nor the Tourism Secretary, knew about the project until last week, when she learned that President Macapagal-Arroyo, the concerned officials, and representatives of the Japanese government and a Japanese corporation were about to sign the agreement. Upon Kate’s representation, the President postponed the signing of the agreement.

What gets Kate‚s goat is that the Olongapo residents have not been consulted about the project. That, aside from the SBMA‚s not giving anything to the city. "They have not given us any help," said Kate. And yet the residents had helped create a positive image for the Philippines after the Americans pulled out from Subic. "Thousands of people saw to it that the facilities in the billions of pesos were kept intact, unlike in Clark where even the last toilet bowls were stolen."

What pains Kate is that as a congresswoman, she authored the bill creating the Subic Base Development Authority, and which her husband headed until he was yanked out by deposed President Estrada. She said she saw her husband just a few hours of every week as he had poured his soul and time and energies into the creation of Subic and attracting foreign investors to the place. Olongapo city and the Subic facility are just joined by a bridge, but this bridge has become impassable, metaphorically speaking.

It saddens her that the present chair has allowed the putting up of a building which houses fertilizers and serves as grains storage, without clearance from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

At a meeting with government officials and the Olongapo city residents, a fisherman and a businessman spoke in the dialect about the impact of the project on the local population. But the officials did not seem interested. Mr. Payumo, she said, "looked here and there, he looked bored. I spoke, I said they must respect these people and their views. I cried."

Kate said she was snubbed by Mr. Payumo at a meeting. Because of her opposition to the project, she and Dick have been branded by her adversaries as "obstructionists, detractors and sourgraping."

Kate can very well kiss her adversaries goodbye, but she won’t. Not with the media blitz they are doing to discredit her and Dick. Her attitude is to wait and see, and make sure that the proposed port is not built.

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