Stories by Mike Comerford
Photographs by Mark Welsh
Daily Herald Staff
Last of five parts

Prostitutes joke with each other along Fields Avenue in Angeles City. The red-light district is across from the former Clark Air Force Base.

ANGELES CITY, Philippines - Some of the prostitutes made a visit to Holy Rosary Cathedral in the morning, but this Sunday night along Fields Avenue they crowd the strip and work the bars hawking for "joes."

"Hey, Joe," they shout at passing men, much the way another generation of prostitutes once shouted to "GI Joes" at the former Clark Air Force Base across the street from the red-light district.

Neon lights, strip joints, "girlie" bars and 1950s-style hotels jam together as pop music blares from the clubs.

For more than 100 years, this area has been a capital of prostitution and hedonism, dating back to a time when the women were called "camp followers."

In recent years, a thriving sex tourism trade has sprung up in Angeles City, with buses from Manila hauling in foreigners. With golfing available on the former Clark Air Force Base, vacationers golf by day and prowl the bar scene by night.

Retired U.S. military men say it has toned down somewhat from its peak in the 1980s, but not much. Hundreds, maybe thousands, of young women still dance and serve drinks at places with names like "The Dirty Duck" or "Kokonuts."

With crackdowns in other parts of the Philippines, prostitutes have gravitated to Angeles City, giving it the appearance of being overpopulated with young, scantily clad women.

Some of the young women look like hookers from central casting in mini-skirts and boots. But most look like young women having fun, teasing, playing games and laughing with each other.

Nursing and teaching, more traditional women's work in the Philippines, pay a fraction of the sums these women can make. That is, if their pimps allow them to keep their money.

A University of the Philippines study in the late 1990s estimated there were about a half-million prostitutes in the country. The International Labour Organization, a United Nations human rights agency, estimates there are 75,000 child prostitutes in the country.

Orphaned children and sexually abused minors are more common in Angeles City than most places in the country, said the Rev. Shay Cullen, a missionary working with area youth. Filipinos claiming to have American fathers abound.

Picking up girls along Fields Avenue in Angeles City outside the former Clark Air Force Base remains a thriving activity, literally. Even though the U.S. base has been turned into an economic development park, Angeles City remains a hub of the Philippine sex industry.

The two biggest U.S. bases in the Philippines once were Clark Air Force Base and Subic Naval Base, near Olongapo on the western side of the main island of Luzon.

A political drive to oust the U.S. military presence on the archipelago coincided with the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in June 1991, which covered the area around the bases with ash.

Philippine politicians wanted sovereignty and some activists argued the bases corrupted locals.

Since 1992, the two bases no longer are home to thousands of American troops. They have turned into economic development zones, offering tax breaks to businesses that move there.

Once dominated by the sex industry and the military base, these days Olongapo has a thriving, respectable nightlife strip along the Subic Bay. Federal Express uses the airport and nearby condominiums are filled with both locals and returning Americans.

Still, development at both bases is mired in local politics and allegations of corruption.

Clark has several thriving golf courses and a Holiday Inn. But there's an emptiness to Clark. Roads are not busy. Military parade grounds are dormant and many of the former barracks are dilapidated.

Still, there are some encouraging signs. United Parcel Service has said it expects flights to the airfields at Clark Special Economic Zone will increase 20 percent next year.

Entrepreneur Peter Rodriguez has a grand vision of using Clark hangars to make this a regional stop for airplane repair.

Already, Rodriguez has recruited Philippine airplane mechanics to return from abroad to work on C-130 cargo planes in a joint venture with Lockheed Martin.

Employing about 240 skilled workers, the Clark facility is the only Lockheed-Martin site in Asia.

Still, along the gate on the border of Clark, the Fields Avenue bars are filled with U.S. military memorabilia, making it impossible to forget the other side of Clark's legacy.

The patrons often are former American, Australian and British military personnel, although some active military types can be seen walking the street. Japanese and South Korean visitors arrive in organized tour groups.

At a club just off Fields Avenue, what patrons call a "mosquito" or "bar girl" comes over to a table of patrons.

Each of the women working the bar have been checked for sexually transmitted diseases and have a verification badge.

The waitress, a shy, laughing, sweet-looking teenager wearing a short skirt, asks for the food order.

Her badge is emblazoned with a "V," for virgin.

IN PART 5:
• Ferdie's full house
• A look at life in the red-light district
• A banker is forced to try farming
• More photos from part 5