Rest & Recreation: the U.S. naval base at Subic bay
The following article is the summary of a thesis entitled "Olongapo's R&R Industry: A Sociological Analysis of Institutionalized Prostitution" prepared by Leopoldo Moselina
for the Asian Social Institute, 1518 Leon Guinto St., Malate, Manila, the Philippines. It is dated 1978.
Relationship between the US naval base and Olongapo's rest and recreation (R&R) Industry The industry as it exists today came about only upon the establishment of the US Naval Base in Subic Bay since 1904. As the US Naval Base expanded and increased its activity -- due to wars in Korea, Vietnam and other commitments of the United States in Asia and the Pacific - the city's R&R business likewise grew and expanded rapidly. The end of the Vietnam war brought about a decrease in the volume of activity at the Subic Bay Naval Base which in turn resulted in a decline in the city's R&R business. In short, the rise and decline of the industry is largely dependent on the increase and decrease of activity at the Subic Bay Naval Base.
The Industry's operation and Its subculture
Business operations are characterized by trickery, manipulation, and exploitation in all levels of business transaction. Under this arrangement, the R&R establishment owners and operators and their associates as well as the city leadership and their families benefit most; the R&R employees, particularly the women, suffer most.
While city officials and business operators claim that the R&R industry is plain entertainment, the transactions - which have been legitimated through various city ordinances and other forms of business regulations -- clearly reveal organized prostitution taking place. Among such ordinances and legitimization are the following:
An anti-streetwalking ordinance which considers soliciting of customers in the streets punishable. But soliciting customers inside the clubs -- which therefore assures business operators of income from various fees imposed on customers - is not punishable and is considered the normal thing to do.
The requirement of a Mayor's Permit for every employee before they are considered registered/licensed R&R workers. Operators and owners of R&R establishments are likewise required to secure business permits before they can operate. Requiring business permits is one source of revenue for the city government.
The city government maintains and operates a social hygiene clinic which certifies whether an entertainer is free from VD and other communicable diseases or not.
Transactions between customers and entertainers are generally one in an atmosphere of mistrust, pretense, and deception. Customers and entertainers try outwitting one another with the end in view of getting the most out of the transaction. There are times when customers demand performance of perverted sexual acts which women-prostitutes normally resent. Such unreasonable demands sometimes lead to physical injuries and, in rare instances, murder.
Between employers (R&R business owners and operators and managers) and employees (R&R workers such as hostesses, go-go dancers, waiters, waitresses, massage attendants, stripteasers, etc.), the same atmosphere of mistrust and deception prevail. Labor laws and social legislation are indeed futile as R&R workers continue to become silent but unwilling victims of unjust labor practices. No amount of cheating done by R&R employees can outdo the systematic exploitation created and perpetuated by the R&R business owners and operators.
Even among the R&R employees themselves, relationships are not always good. As one hostess perceptively remarked: "Under this system where one destroys or cheats another in a mad scramble for money, it is difficult for us hostesses to unite, despite the fact that we are in the same boat. Where we have been used to behave in a manner mistrustful of each other, it will take a long time to create a sense of trust and a spirit of unity among us".
The US Naval Base presence and commercialized prostitution in Olongapo has spawned several subsidiary institutions which are unsanctioned but which continue to exist: streetwalking, racket and extortion, pick-pocketing and snatching, drug pushing, illicit dollar trading, smuggling of PX goods, and sidewalk vending.
Profile of the participants in the industry
The Entertainment workers
The majority of the women-workers come from the Eastern Visayas Region, particularly Samar and Leyte - which are pronounced by the National Economic Development Association (NEDA) as economically depressed areas in the country today. They come mostly from poverty-stricken families. Their educational attainment is only up to various levels in the elementary school.
The primary reason for their working in this kind of business is economic poverty aggravated by emotional and socio-psychological factors like unhappy childhoods, broken homes, unpleasant and traumatic experiences such as having been a victim of rape, abandonment by a boyfriend or a husband, having a child out of wedlock, and unhappy marriage
The hostesses earn through commission from lady's drinks and bar fines (normally between 30% to 50% of the cost). If they go out with customers, they may earn more from their sexual transactions for which they charge normally between 100 to 150 pesos, either for short time (which is two to three hours) or an overnight engagement. It must be pointed out, however, that their income fluctuates depending on the presence or absence of a ship in port. The average monthly earning is between 500 to 600 pesos. (One peso = ± US$ .14). Since their basic reason for working in the trade is economic, most aspire to achieve economic security principally by marrying an American serviceman. Yet only six out of a hundred end up marrying an American (based on the number of intermarriages registered annually in Olongapo, these do not include marriages contracted outside the city).
As per city ordinance, one can start working in the entertainment business only upon reaching the age of 18 - although some manage to start as early as 13 or 14 through the arrangement of club owners and managers. They continue working till they are in their late forties or fifties and as long as club owners would still allow them. Upon their retirement, the majority have no savings nor social security benefits -- thus they end up as poor and exploited as when they started, if not poorer and more exploited and dehumanized.
The R&R establishment owners and operators They constitute the local capitalist class. They also dominate the community's socio-civil, professional and sometimes even religious organizations. They have interlocking relationships with city government officials whose interests are basically identical with the business men's interests.
Based on official records of the Business Permit Section of the City Mayor's Office, numerically, approximately 75% of all R&R establishments are in the hands of Filipinos. Approximately 19% are in the hands of Chinese; and 6% in the hands of Americans (the accuracy of these statistics depends on whether or not the Business Permit Section has allowed, perhaps unknowingly, dummies to secure licenses and permits for aliens). However, in terms of the volume of capitalization, the Chinese control the city's R&R business.
The R&R industry's clientele
The American servicemen and civilian personnel from the US Naval Base in Subic Bay constitute the bulk of the industry's clientele. Between 6,000 to 7,000 American military and civilian personnel come to Olongapo everyday for rest and recreation (based on figures released by the Public Affairs Office, US Naval Base, Subic Bay, 1976).
According to those interviewed, the average American sailor has had a high school education. Reasons for joining the navy are varied; but in most cases, the primary motive is security for oneself and one's future family. The conditions of navy life, his cultural orientation which is essentially materialistic, consumeristic, pleasure-oriented,etc. - thus even sex has been reduced to a thing which can be bought and sold as one would buy and sell any commodity in the market, and which, like any commodity, can be disposed of after using it - are some of the predisposing factors for the average American sailor to patronize the business.
Dehumanizing practices in the R&R business
Olongapo's R&R business is an organized system of sexual exploitation and hence dehumanization. The value of profit making and maximization takes precedence over the value and dignity of the human person. Persons are treated as leisure accessories, playthings, objects for sexual pleasures, etc. Stripteasing acts such as "coin-sucking", "banana-cutting" or "sausage-cutting", "egg-breaking", "cigarette-smoking", etc. are regular features in some notorious clubs. Dancing in the nude and having sexual intercourse right on top of the table or on stage for public viewing are sometimes allowed. Above all, the imposition of bar fines by club owners and managers, which is legitimated by the city government, is in effect encouraging and promoting white slavery or forced prostitution
Groups and agencies serving the R&R workers
Various groups and agencies - government, socio-civic and religious - are trying to help the hostesses and other R&R workers in terms of health services, labor litigation's, temporary shelters, drug and alcohol rehabilitation, vocational training, cooperative education and organization, and even moral guidance.
There is no doubt that all these programs and services of the various groups and agencies meet the present needs of the R&R workers and are therefore necessary and praiseworthy. The question, however, is: Do they address themselves to the root cause or causes of the problematic situation? A close examination reveals that it is not to the roots of the problematic situation, but only to the symptoms, that the agencies' programs and projects are directed. Thus, it is not surprising that most of the agencies and their programs even receive enthusiastic support and endorsement from the oppressors themselves. In short, they serve as confidence mechanisms which subtly perpetuate the same problematic situation.
Views of community leaders and change agents on the industry
Representatives from the supposed leaders and change agents in the community tolerate the existence of the R&R industry primarily for economic reasons.They are aware of the social, moral and health problems which have been spawned by the industry. The majority (75% ) view the industry as a viable economic foundation for the community as long as the US Naval Base remains. They all point to the fact that the industry has been the city's main source of income for several years now. About the women who work in the industry, the respondents view them as generally poor and struggling for survival, and unwilling victims of an unjust and oppressive economic system.
As an alternative to Olongapo's R&R business, the majority consider conversion of the city into an industrial commercial center as feasible in the event that the US Naval Base withdraws. However, there are those who mentioned that as long as the US Naval Base remains, any alternative has no competing power against the existing R&R trade.
Recommendations
Analysis has shown Olongapo's R&R industry as a dehumanizing situation. The value and dignity of the human person is negated; human development is not promoted. Inauthentic, functional and exploitative relationships characterize the transactions among the Industry's participants. The challenge therefore is towards the task of humanization. This idea of humanization Includes essentially the process of liberation from oppressive structures and systems that serve as obstacles to people's historical task of humanizing themselves and their situation. In brief, the program and strategy for radical social change in Olongapo's situation consist in questioning the existing reality, defining a new and a more human and just reality, and constructively transforming reality
In this context, the only way to put an end to Olongapo's prostitution business is a radical restructuring of the city's economy. Economic restructuring will In turn bring about changes in the political, cultural, and religious systems in the community, as well as in the psychology of its people. This process will necessitate the following:
a) Generating critical consciousness among the R&R workers and other marginal groups in the community. Critical awareness will set them into a continuing struggle to liberate themselves from the shackles of their oppressors ~ principally the R&R business operators and their associates, in short, the city's economic and political elites.
b) Formation of social organizations of the R&R workers and other marginal groups. This will be a natural consequence of their growing critical awareness. Their organization will serve as the basis for their continuing conscientization - a series of actions and reflections on their dehumanizing condition. Through their organization, they can generate power which will enable them to participate effectively in decision making and policy-formulation on matters affecting their everyday life. Through their organization, they can shape and re-shape their own reality, and create their own destiny.
This is a typical example of the way South East Asian women are portrayed in the West Entitled "Europeans set out to discover what makes Japan tick" it is taken from Euroforum 21-9-79, published by the Commission of the European Communities, Brussels, Belgium.
WE ARE NOT PROSTITUTES!
While supporting the exposing and denunciation of the prostitution import business from Asia to Europe, a group of Filipina domestic workers have asked us to stress that not all Asian women coming to Europe to work or getting married to Europeans end up in prostitution. Already burdened with long hours of work and low pay in an alien culture, the domestic workers say that the thought that their families and friends back home may suspect that they are prostitutes is an additional pressure. They also say that the threat of prostitution is a scare tactic used by the government to keep them under control. We are reprinting here excerpts from an article about the organization of Filipina workers in Italy and a statement about prostitution from the ISIS Bulletin 10 on Women and Work.
In November 1978, the government in Manila expressed concern over the plight of the Filipinas in Italy and appealed to women seeking work abroad to do so through the Philippine Department of Labour which would assure them of its protection. A large daily newspaper in Manila reported this appeal and stated in the same article that many Filipinas were forced to prostitute themselves in Italy. The Filipinas in Kababayan reacted very angrily to this article. They see the warning about prostitution as a kind of blackmail to get them under the control of the Philippine government. They know from experience, both at home and abroad, that this so-called protection is simply a legalization of their exploitation. While many of them have had to fight off sexual harassment and the demand for sexual favors throughout the whole process of their obtaining work abroad, they are very angry that the Manila newspapers are distorting their situation using the bugaboo of prostitution. In reaction to this, they have issued the following statement:
We, Filipino workers in Italy, firmly denounce the attempt to give a distorted view, in Italy and especially in the Philippines where our families and friends are living, of our work and activities here. Ours is a life of sacrifice, of renunciation, of exploitation and of constant danger of losing our national and cultural identity. We are not in Italy to prostitute ourselves. We are here in Italy because of the lack of work which has forced us to leave our country. First, together with hundreds of thousands of other men and women, we were forced from the countryside to the city because of the growing poverty of the farmers. But in the city there is no work. The government itself admits to an unemployment of 7% but the International Labour Organization speaks of 25% unemployment in our country and others estimate that there are 11.5 million unemployed people in our country, not to mention the huge numbers of underemployed. Even those who are lucky enough to have work live in misery. While legally the minimum daily wage is equal to US$1.35, in reality many workers earn about 70 cents per day! All these things have forced us to leave our country.
Our prostitution is the prostitution of those who sell their own labor, their own time and often their own freedom for 135 dollars a month (the minimum for domestic workers in Italy) where an Italian would ask three or four times that amount. We hope that the Italian workers will try to understand our situation better as well as that of other migrant workers in Italy and that the unions and workers organizations will help us to get out of this precarious situation of clandestine work and to fight, together with Italian workers and other migrants, to improve our working conditions.
We wonder why the Philippine embassy here in Rome has told the government in manila that prostitution is one of the biggest dangers facing Filipinas who come to Italy. The same kind of information was reported in Manila on the occasion of the visit of Imelda Marcos, wife of the Philippine dictator. Why? We see this type of information as a kind of blackmail with a very clear objective. The bugaboo of the danger of prostitution is only a tool in the hands of the Philippine government to legalize and give its blessing to our exploitation beginning in Manila, which is swarming with employment agencies,the largest of which is governmental, and ending in the ten, twelve, fourteen and sometimes sixteen hours of work a day here in Italy, going through the various employment agencies in Italy and Europe and not excluding compatriots who have also official tasks here in Italy.
ISIS INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN IN SPANISH
The ISIS International Bulletin is now appearing in a special edition in the Spanish language. It is being prepared by a group of Latin American women especially for Latin America, Spain and Spanish speaking women everywhere. The first issue gives an overview of the women's movement in Latin America in comparison to the movement in Europe; women's liberation struggles in Tanzania; the politics of baby foods; news and resources from Latin American and Spanish feminist organizations and groups. Subscription rates are $10 a year for individuals and women's groups and $15 for institutions and libraries. Airmail postage outside Europe is $5 extra. Cheques should be made out to ISIS in dollars or currency equivalents. Please send orders, inquiries, etc. to ISIS, via della Pelliccia 31, Rome, Italy.
