The current profusion of Pampangan restaurants and carving workshops in Manila testify to the domestic diaspora in the wake of Pinatubo. Not so, says the Clark Development Corporation, or CDC, which is in charge of redeveloping the base. But frequent changes in management have badly affected the CDC's performance. Singson has only been in charge since July, and his predecessor, Sergio Naguiat, lasted a mere five months. And some wonder whether Clark is viable at all.
Manufacturing still forms the backbone of investment, most of it garments.
The most vibrant business in Clark, curiously, seems to be duty-free shops. Unlike those encountered in most international airports, these sell everyday items like imported frozen chicken, which locals say is tastier than domestic mass-produced birds but which they usually can't afford because of crippling tariffs. But there is no system to track how much people buy. Three hundred people who took refuge there during the Pinatubo eruption say they were exposed to asbestos, lead, nitrate, dieldrin, mercury and benzine at the base. To them, it's just another Yankee atrocity.