9. THE PX of DAU & STOTSENBURG’S CLARK

THE PX OF DAU & STOTSENBURG’S CLARK

Dr. Troy Alexander G. Miano

17 December 2016

I arrived at Royce Hotel at Clark Freeport Zone to attend a dinner at Amare by Chef Chris hosted by Isabela Governor Faustino G. Dy III for the Department Heads and Sangguniang Panlalawigan Members. This is one of my numerous trips to Clark, a redevelopment of the former United States Air Force base in the Philippines. The Zone has modern infrastructure facilities, generous fiscal and non-fiscal incentives, professional support services and other amenities. Today, Clark forms the hub for business, industry, aviation, education, and tourism in the Philippines as well as a leisure, fitness, entertainment and gaming center of Central Luzon. It is located on the northwest side of Angeles City and on the west side of Mabalacat City in the province of Pampanga and northwest of Metro Manila.

During my elementary days in Ateneo, my bestfriend and I would travel by bus for about 85 kilometers to Dau just to buy PX. PX is short for Post Exchange, a service mark used for a store on a military base that sells goods to military personnel and their families or to authorized civilians. I read an article by Jun Malig at business.inquirer.net entitled “Rise and Fall of PX Trade” posted over four years ago. In the 70s and 80s, the numerous stalls near the service road of the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) in Barangay Dau in Mabalacat City was well known for the “Made in the USA” merchandise which were not available in existing shopping centers and supermarkets at that time.

In his book, “Views from the Pampang,” Alex Castro stated that “PX goods flowed out of the base (Clark Air Base) in abundance to be resold later in stores and shops that quickly sprouted like mushrooms along MacArthur Highway. Farmlands were flattened and idle lots were cleared to give way to hole-in-the-wall stalls that sold never-before-tasted goodies and luxuries seen only on American glossies. All of a sudden, Pringles in canisters, Hanes T-shirts, Pacex Milk and ice cream, Dove soap [bars] and Piknik shoestring potatoes were all the rage. Everybody joined the PX bandwagon and soon, a commercial area of sorts rose in Dau, the biggest of which is the Marina Arcade owned by the Moraleses. Even houses nearby turned their garages into stalls selling not just brand new items but also second-hand, American leaving goods -- from lamps, toys, plumbing fixtures to whole dining room showcases.” Most of the customers of the PX stores were Metro Manila residents who drove through NLEX to this town to buy American-made products. Because of the abundant PX goods, Dau also became a regular pit stop for motorists and travellers going to and coming from Baguio City.

Efren Torres who worked at a stall at Dau Mart II in the early 80s added, “We got our PX products from many sources, including dependents who sold them to us and we resold to our customers, particularly those from Manila. Among the items being regularly bought from us are soda in cans because you could not find them in local grocery stores at that time.” Dependents were Filipino women married to American servicemen stationed at Clark Air Base.

But the unexpected withdrawal of American forces from Clark after the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in 1991 and the non-ratification by the Senate of the proposed extension of the Philippines-United States Military Bases Agreement served as a sledge hammer that shattered Dau’s lively PX trading. The succeeding years saw the establishment of several duty-free stores in Clark that offered various imported items, including goods that used to be sold only by the PX stalls in Dau.

Clark Air Base was originally established as Fort Stotsenburg in Sapang Bato, Angeles, Pampanga in 1903 under control of the U.S. Army. A portion of Fort Stotsenburg was officially set aside for the Aviation Section of the Signal Corps and named Clark Field in September 1919.

Fort Stotsenburg is named after John Miller Stotsenburg (1858-1899), a Captain of the Sixth U.S. Cavalry and a Colonel of the First Nebraska Volunteers. He was killed in the Philippine-American War while leading his regiment in action near Quingua, Bulacan on April 23, 1899. Arlingtoncemetery.net gives us a bird’s eye view of Stotsenburg’s role during the War. “From the opening of hostilities until after his death, Colonel Stotsenburg's regiment was constantly in the field and always on the firing line. In the first major engagement of the Philippine-American War, on February 5, 1899, Colonel Stotsenburg personally led his troops into action that resulted in the capture of the San Juan Bridge, the powder magazine, the water work reservoir, the Convent of San Juan del Monte, and San Felipe, all of which were contested heavily by General Emilio Aguinaldo's forces. The following day, his troops drove the enemy across the Santolan River and captured the water works pumping station before the Filipinos could destroy it. During those maneuvers, Colonel Stotsenburg commanded more troops than any brigadier general on the field in the Philippines had handled up to that time: the First Nebraska, four guns of the Utah Light Battery, and a battalion of the 23rd U.S. Infantry; at the time of his death, he was 40 years old”.

Clark Field, on the other hand, is named after Harold M. Clark (1890-1919), a major in U.S. Army Signal Corps. He was commissioned a Second Lieutenant of Cavalry in 1913. In 1916, he transferred to the Aviation Section of the Signal Corps, and in 1917 was rated a Junior Military Aviator. He was appointed as the commanding officer of a pursuit group of the First Provisional Wing at Mineola, New York and later became an executive officer with the Aviation Section in Panama. He died on May 2, 1919 in a seaplane crash in the Miraflores Locks, Panama Canal Zone.

Stotsenburg and Clark did their duty for their country and were honoured by their leaders by immortalizing their names in the former U.S. occupied Philippines. The name Clark became more popular than Stotsenburg and was used as the official name of the U.S. military airbase up to 1991. Today it is officially known as Clark Freeport Zone.

Borrowing the words of Castro; “Dau’s golden PX age may have gone, but with the unwavering spirit of enterprise demonstrated by its hardworking people, the barangay continues to forge to the future, firmly entrenched as Mabalacat’s premier and undisputed commercial center.”