History
Excerpt from 'Subic Bay Travel and Dive Guide' by Charles Davis, Jr.
It is not generally known when the area was first inhabited, but the first recorded visit by a European was in 1572. Juan de Salcedo sailed into Subic Bay to collect taxes for King Philip 11. Juan de Salcedo was the grandson of Miguel Lopez de Legaspi, who had founded the first Spanish settlement in the Philippines. He found a wonderful bay with deep water¬sheltered anchorage surrounded by thick green jungles. The native population that greeted him were fishermen who were liv¬ing as their ancestors had for centuries. Using small native outriggers, they fished in the bay and the South China Sea. They were also hunters, taking wild game from the jungles. The jungles were also the home of a nomadic tribe of hunters, the Aeta. A small number of Aeta families still live in the jun¬gles around Subic Bay and other areas of the Philippines. There are stories of galle¬ons visiting the bay to escape storms but the Spanish did not have much to do with Subic Bay again until 1868. That year, a military expedition was sent to explore the bay as a possible replacement for the base at Cavite. Cavite suffered from unhealthy living conditions with rampant diseases such as malaria. It also lacked shelter and shallow water, making it dangerous in bad weather and difficult to defend from attack. The only major benefit was that it was close to the "big" city, Manila. The expedition highly recommended Subic Bay and selected a site near the fishing vil¬lage of Olongapo. The leadership however dragged its heels and it was not until 1884 that the plans were submitted to the King and approved. In March 1885, the Spanish Naval Commission authorized the con¬struction of the "Arsenal at Olongapo" with work starting in September. The Spaniards started to build their base using forced labor of the local population. The design created an "island" for the base and town of Olongapo. A drainage channel still in use today was created between the inner basin and the Kalaklan River. The San Quintin was one of three gunboats that circled the island traveling from the inner harbor, through the drainage chan¬nel down the river into the bay and then along the shore back to the inner harbor.
SPANISH ERA
The "Spanish" gate, as it is known today, had been the west gate of the arsenal. A brick wall enclosed the land side of the base, with a South Gate near the water¬front. The majority of the foundries and repair shops of the base were located at Rivera point.
About 400 meters west of the Spanish gate lay the new town of Olongapo. Set in the model of traditional Spanish towns, it centered on a town plaza. The plaza was located on what is now Tappan Park near the central business district of SBMA. Compared to the rest of the Philippines, the Spanish control over Olongapo was short-lived. The outbreak of hostilities between the United States and Spain on 24 April 1898 happened because of the natives' desire to break free from Spanish control. The opening of the war found the Spaniards unprepared and unable to defend its Navy. At first, the Spaniards thought that they would be able to defend Subic Bay and had moved the fleet to that location. Upon arrival, they discov¬ered that they were unprepared, and thus, they retreated to Cavite-the section on Grande Island has more details of this action. In June, the Spanish residents of the area decided that they needed a safer place so they moved to Grande Island. In July, a Spanish-controlled ship,Compania de Filipina,was taken
over by her Filipino crew and sailed into Manila Bay to join the insurgents. There, she was loaded with an armed party and fitted out with fake artillery to look like a warship. She then sailed to Subic Bay to capture the remaining Spanish forces. Arriving at the entrance to the bay, the insurgents demanded the forces on Grande Island to surrender. They refused to do so thus the ship pre¬pared to land the armed party. At this point, a German ship, the Irene, entered the bay and demanded that the Compania de Filipinas surrender but she escaped and went back to Manila. When a report of the incident reached Admiral Dewey, he ordered two ships to sail for Subic.
The USS Raleigh and the USS Concord arrived early the next morning and imme¬diately sighted the Irene. As the US ships started to position themselves to attack, the Irene wasted no time in leaving the bay. She cut loose her anchor instead of raising it, and left using the very narrow, very shallow and dangerous eastern chan¬nel. The USS Raleigh fired a few rounds from its smaller guns over the island and the Spanish commander immediately surrendered. One thousand three hun¬dred Spanish troops, friars and civilians were handed over to the captain of the Compania de Filipinas, who transported them back to Olongapo and turned them over to the Filipino commander there. The friars and a few others were allowed to stay but the rest were ordered to march inland.
The Treaty of Paris between the United States and Spain ended the war on December 10, 1898. As part of that treaty, the US bought the Philippines from Spain. The Filipinos, who had seen the Spanish¬-American war as a war of independence, now felt that they had just traded mas¬ters. Despite American assurance of future independence, many insurgents continued the fight with a new enemy. The so-called Bolo Wars raged throughout the country. The Subic Bay area had been left under the control of the insurgent forces and for many months had been left alone by the Americans. Ships on the way to Manila would often slip into Subic and unload sup¬plies for the insurgent forces. In this peace¬ful environment, the insurgent forces built a gun battery on Kalaklan point using two guns from Grande Island. In the summer of 1899, the US added Subic to the list of places to be visited by its patrol boats. The first few visits were uneventful. The Zafiro, an armed supply ship, entered the bay for a routine patrol and was fired upon by the gun battery. The ship retreated undam¬aged and reported the incident to Cavite.
The armored cruiser, USS Charleston, was sent to Subic and she used her 8-inch guns to fire upon the battery. Upon her withdrawal, the battery fired a shot at the USS Charleston.
On September 23, 1899, the crew of the battery of Kalaklan point looked out to find that the lightly armed supply ship Zafiro had returned. Unluckily for the bat¬tery this time, she brought some friends. The battery once again got to meet the USS Charleston and the USS Concord. USS Monterey greeted them with a bar¬rage from her huge 10- and 12-inch guns. Joined by the other ships, the battery was under intense attack.
Emerging from the smoke created by the big guns, three columns of steam launches came from behind the USS Charleston car¬rying 250 sailors and marines also add¬ing their gattling guns to the firing. Three hundred insurgents rushed from the naval base across the open spaces of Olongapo and started firing at the landing party. They reconsidered their actions when the launches turned the gattling guns in their direction. The ship only stopped firing when the party landed to capture the bat¬tery. Once the objective was seized, they destroyed the guns and withdrew.
The Americans returned again on December 9, 1899, this time with 30 sol¬diers. Their mission was to clear the area of insurgents and to take control of the naval base.
As the army unit approached the town of Olongapo, the insurgents fired on them but fled when the soldiers returned fire. The soldiers took the town and naval base without further incident. Early next morning, Admiral Watson arrived in Subic Bay, aboard the USS Baltimore with the battleship USS Oregon. The ships had arrived to provide naval gun support to the attacking Army units but instead found the Army in full control of the sta¬tion. One hundred marines landed and took over the station. The U.S. Navy took control of the naval station and the town of Olongapo. The army withdrew to the town of Subic where it maintained con¬trol of the surrounding area.
Occasional skirmishes with the insur¬gents occurred for the next few months but tapered off. By March 1900, the situation in the area stabilized. The next five years saw a gradual increase in the number of U.S. Marines assigned in the area. The jungles provided excellent opportunities for train¬ing. In November 1900, the Subic Bay Naval Reservation was established. In 1906, the Dewey dry-dock arrived from the United States. This gave the Navy the ability to do major repairs on ships at Subic Bay.
In June 1907, military forces were ordered to secretly concentrate at Subic Bay to fortify Grande Island. Just like the :panish reaction in 1868, the American ommand did not want to give up the omforts of the big city life in Manila. High-level debates over the sustainabil¬y of Subic Bay against enemy attack led 3 a change in policy that changed world istory. In 1908, the U.S. decided to build their major base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, instead of the Philippines. Hawaii was then a U.S. territory.
With the arrival of the Dewey dry-dock and a modest increase in the bases' operat¬ing budget, Subic Bay became increasingly important as a ship-repair facility.
At the outbreak of WWI, a division of destroyers had just been overhauled at the base. Within four hours, the division was underway. They reached Gibraltar in record time and without any breakdowns or slowdowns. When asked about any repairs upon their arrival at Gibraltar, the British admiral was told that none would be needed until the end of the war, and that they had just been overhauled at Subic. Subic Bay Naval Reserve saw limited usage during WWI. It did overhaul and refit some captured German vessels. After WWI, the 1922 Washington Treaty severely affected the base at Subic. The Treaty required that the facilities at Subic be reduced and the Army's Fort Wint on Grande Island be reduced to an inactive facility.
Events leading to WWII saw some changes and reinforcement of Subic Bay. The Fourth Marine Regiment was moved to Olongapo when they were withdrawn from China. The Army activated Fort Wint again and started to train coastal defense forces. Elements of Patrol Wing Ten were assigned to the base. Still, Subic Bay was considered a secondary site. The main concentration of naval forces was still in Cavite. Olongapo was still an isolated post. The only routes were by sea and the national highway. The army felt they could hold or at least delay any enemy forces approaching Olongapo along the national highway from San Fernando. Much to their dismay, they found out how right they were years later when the approach was under the control of the Japanese.
Within hours of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese forces were on the offensive in the Philippines. Japanese bombers attacked Clark Field about eight hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor. A major attack on the forces at Cavite was made on the lot' of December. The first attack on Olongapo occurred on the 12th when Japanese aircraft followed the bases' PBYs (patrol bombers) back from a mis¬sion.* Seven of the PBYs were destroyed, striking a crippling blow to naval avia¬tion. On the 14th, the Japanese aircraft rRturned in droves. They devastated large portions of the area resulting in many casualties including hundreds of civilians leisurely enjoying a Sunday afternoon. The next day, the personnel at the base started to prepare for evacuation. The USS New York was taken out in the bay and scuttled. The base was abandoned on December 24 and the marine regiment departed for Bataan.
Before the US forces left, they destroyed everything on the bases that could be of value to the Japanese troops. Civilians in the town of Olongapo did the same to the village. Many of them fled to the hills while those who stayed behind suffered the wrath of the Japanese Army.
The Japanese Army took control of Olongapo on January 10, 1942 and seized Grande Island two days later. With Subic Bay under their control, Japanese ships had a port able to directly supply troops attack¬ing the allied forces in Bataan. This was a major tactical and strategic advantage.
Rather than a few PT (torpedo boat) attacks, Subic Bay was out of reach of the retreating allied forces. Subic Bay became a major supply center for the Japanese Army, both as an invasion force and later as an occupation force. A few American air strikes were made in March of 1944, but until then, it was firmly under Japanese control. However, Filipino guerrilla forces who were present in the area did not actively engage the Japanese. The Japanese had instituted a policy of reprisals against attacks. For every Japanese killed, they would execute 10 Filipinos.
The American invasion of Leyte on October 20, 1944 provided the foothold back into the Philippines. In January 1945, American forces landed in the Lingayen Gulf in Northern Luzon. On January 29, an invasion fleet landed at San Antonio about 25 miles north of Subic Bay. There was no Japanese resistance to the landing. After the American landing at Lingayen, Japanese troops were withdrawn and concentrated in essential areas. The Filipino guerrillas had moved in and secured the area after the Japanese withdrawal. The American land¬ing force at San Antonio was met not with guns and bullets but with waving crowds of Filipinos and banca escorts.
The Americans advanced south to Olongapo, meeting its first resistance at the Kalaklan River. The town of Olongapo had been set afire and about 150 Japanese troops were there to slow down the American advance.
Artillery was called upon to clear the town, which was taken later that day. On the afternoon of the 29', an American aux¬iliary ship entered the mouth of Subic Bay, taking a station just inside Grande Island. Overnight, a number of mine-sweeping ships congregated outside of the Bay. The next morning, a landing party took con¬trol of Grande Island and the minesweepers entered the bay and started a clearing oper¬ation. On the 315`, ships of the fleet entered the bay and the Navy reclaimed the Naval station. That day, Landing Ship Tanks were making dry ramp landings at the town of Subic, reducing the supply line by 25 miles.
As naval personnel and army engineers reestablished the navy base, the army pur¬sued the Japanese. The Japanese had with¬drawn to a fortified position in the zig¬zag pass. Just as the army had predicted earlier, a force here could stop a large force. The Japanese had built an intercon¬nected network of tunnels, caves and pill¬boxes. Two thousand seven hundred fifty Japanese stopped the advance of as many as 40,000 American troops. Over one thou¬sand four hundred Americans were killed before the pass was cleared. For three days, the Americans made no progress. Only with air support did the Americans gain any headway. An intensive campaign of strafing, bombs and napalm finally broke the Japanese's positions. It had taken the Americans fifteen days to advance for 5 miles. The cost was very high for the Japanese with over two thousand four hun¬dred of them killed.
The first establishment at the base was a supply point for submarines and motor torpedo boats. The marines established a support center in the area that is now Barrio Barretto. This consisted of a supply point, an advanced base construction unit and a Seabees unit. When order and safety were restored to the area, the navy and the local population started the daunting task of rebuilding. Not only was the sta¬tion destroyed but also the town. A new town was planned and was built across the drainage ditch from the old town. Olongapo was built following a typical American town layout.
The Philippines became fully indepen¬dent on July 4, 1946. However, the town of Olongapo remained under the United States' control. Over the next decade, the American government funneled millions of dollars for civil improvements to the town of Olongapo, making it the most modern town in the Philippines. It also became the most financially stable with one of the highest per capita income in the country. In the mid-1950s, the pop¬ulation had grown to over fifty thousand and many Filipinos were growing upset that the residents of Olongapo were basi¬cally aliens in their own lands. Access to the area under US supervision including the town was controlled. Residents were issued photo identification cards that allowed them free access. However, non¬residents were required to register their entries and exits. The length of time a temporary resident could stay was con¬trolled. A nonresident wishing to stay for more than five days was required to register and become a temporary resi¬dent. Nonresidents could look for and obtain employment which would allow them to stay. However, unemployed tem¬porary residents who were not able to secure employment or became unem¬ployed were asked to leave. The citi¬zens of the town elected their own local government officials but US Navy per¬sonnel held the top positions. In the mid¬1950s, due to the public outcry, the United States and Philippine officials began to discuss the issue which led to a number of changes, including relinquishing control of the school board and hospital. In 1959, elections were held for all local govern¬ment positions and on December 7, 1959, the United States turned over control of Olongapo to the Philippine government. At this time, there were about sixty thou¬sand people living in the town. The area rapidly became a political battleground as provincial and municipal officials vied for control over the infrastructure that was turned over by the U.S. forces. The major¬ity of the infrastracture funded by the U.S. government were sold to private individ¬uals. Many leaders were accused of cor¬ruption as the amounts remitted to the municipality were shockingly low. The turnover of control also brought about a lot of people into the town looking for employment or easy money. Suddenly, unemployment became a major problem for the government and the crime rate increased drastically.
The 1950s also brought great changes to the naval base. The greatest change was the establishment of the Naval Air Station (NAS), now the Subic International Airport, precipitated by the outbreak of the Korean War. The area that is now the airport was part of a mountain ridge. The 1,200-foot mountain was flattened and an 8,000-foot runway was built extending out into the bay. The shape of the NAS resem¬bles an aircraft carrier. The project was said to have been one of the greatest engi¬neering tasks in history roughly equaling the digging of the Panama Canal. Leyte Pier was built near the end of the runway and was used to dock aircraft carriers.
The completion of NAS enabled the navy to cope with the high demands on carrier-based aircraft during the Vietnam War. The NAS provided sup¬port for over four hundred carrier ¬based aircraft not only for routine main¬tenance but also for repair of combat damage. The Vietnam War also affected the Navy base in many other ways. The US Seventh fleet operated from there, sailing to Vietnam waters for operations and returning to refuel and to replen¬ish supplies and ammunition. At the height of the war, the fuel depot trans¬ferred more fuel each month than any other military facility. The depot also transferred fuel to Clark Air Force Base by a pipeline between the two bases. The depot volume of fuel was so great that it even outstripped most commer¬cial refineries. The supply depot also had over two hundred thousand dif¬ferent items in stock. Additional sup¬port facilities for families and sailors on R&R; were added. Housing for hundreds of additional families, and thousands of additional sailors were built as all as hotel accommodations on the land-side base and on Grande Island.
The year 1991 was a pivotal year for the Subic Bay area. On June 15, Mount Pinatubo erupted with a force making it one of the most powerful eruptions in his¬tory. The volcano sent out such a volume of ash that its effects were felt around the world. The Subic Bay area was under a foot to three feet of ash. The disaster was made worse with the untimely arrival of a typhoon. The effects of the ash, earth¬quakes and the winds and rains of the typhoon created a hellish nightmare. Over sixty people died because of the natural disaster. Over a hundred buildings of the naval base collapsed. The naval facility was able to recover rapidly with limited use of the air station back within two weeks, and most operations returned to normal by mid-July. On September 8, the first of the 20,000 dependents that were evacuated started to return.
It was also on September 16 that the military base agreement of 1947 expired. There had been negotiations to extend the agreement that resulted in a Treaty of Friendship, Peace and Cooperation. The Philippine Senate however rejected the treaty, ending the existence of the naval base. Further negotiations allowed the US to remain for 3 years. However, the US withdrew from the base within a year. On March 13, 1992 the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) was created to convert the naval base into an economic zone. The US Navy with¬drew on November 24, 1992 and SBMA took control.
The focus of the SBMA was to create jobs to fill the vacuum created by the withdrawal of the navy. Not only at issue was the large number of lost jobs on the base but also the number of jobs in Olongapo's shops and stores where the visiting navy personnel spent their money. Many industries came in and used the existing facilities for manu¬facturing. The recreational facilities that the navy personnel had used became tourism facilities. Through the years, both industry and tourism developed.
Today, the SBMA and the local govern¬ment of Olongapo are planning to expand tourism activities. Increasing competition from China and other neighboring coun¬tries have affected the areas' ability to attract and keep industries. The tourism industry however is getting stronger with an increase in both domestic and interna¬tional travelers.
THE LEGEND OF APO
Like anything passed down over time by oral history, there are many variations to the story of "Apo" but most follow a sim¬ilar theme as this version of the legend. Legend and folklore has it that the name Olongapo was derived in context from the phrase "Ulo ng Apo" or Old Man's Head. The story is that there was once a tribe whose people were disunited. A wise, old man seeing the evils that disunity saw among his people, exerted great efforts and united the tribe. A group of villains, how¬ever, did not appreciate the fruits of the old man's efforts. They bitterly disliked the idea of the tribe having a true and good leader. One day, the wise, old man just dis¬appeared. After a long search, the old man's body was found but the head was miss¬ing. The natives launched diligent efforts to locate the severed head of their leader. However, their efforts proved futile. But the search did not end there. A boy, who made a vow not to stop until he could find the old man's head, indefatigably contin¬ued to look for it. Then one day, he came upon the old man's head resting on the tip of a bamboo pole. The villains, apparently, wanted to disgrace the wise, old man so that disunity and its evils would again prevail among the natives. Upon seeing the head, the boy ran back to his people crying “ Ulo ng Apo” around the village. The phrase stuck and the place was known as it is today - Olongapo. Legend also adds that the old man's head became the symbol of the natives' unity.
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