July 27, 1994

                                                       Carlos's Tents

        Think of the American soldiers who waded ashore at Leyte with General Douglas MacArthur on October 20, 1944. How many of them would spend over a thousand dollars for a round-trip air ticket to the Philippines so they could be at Red Beach in Palo, Leyte for the fiftieth anniversary of the Leyte landing?
        Thousands, predicts Tourism Secretary Vicente Carlos, who believes that these veterans will enthusiastically splurge on this kind of sentimental journey. He recalls that General MacArthur felt compelled to return to the Philippines in 1944 -- and he seems convinced that about 20,000 veterans of the Leyte campaign will feel a similar compulsion 50 years later, even though none of them promised, "I shall return."
        The estimate of 20,000 visitors is equivalent to about one-sixth of the 175,000 men of General Walter E. Kreuger's Sixth Army, who landed in Leyte.
        And if the typical veteran of the Leyte campaign were willing to splurge so much money for the sake of nostalgia, would he be sentimental enough to spend seven days in a tent  -  and shell out $500 for this kind of accommodations?
        Definitely yes, predicts Mr. Carlos, who is so confident about Americans' military sentimentality that he is putting up enough tents in Palo to accommodate thousands of veterans. These veterans, he says, would be happy to live in tents so they can authentically relive their experiences of 50 years ago.
        Actually Mr. Carlos really doesn't have very much choice about the tents. Palo's hotels, boarding houses, dormitories, and bed-space facilities can accommodate only about 1,000 persons. The tents, each with a portable toilet and shower room, may turn out to be more comfortable than some of Palo's fleabag hotels.
        If Mr. Carlos were sinking his own money into this investment in tents, we would wish him the best of luck -- and urge him and his friends to pray fervently to St. Jude, the patron saint of hopeless cases.
        Unfortunately for us Mr. Carlos is spending P7 million of government money (that is, our money) on these tents. This sum represents about ten percent of the P70 million or so that the government is spending to celebrate the Leyte anniversary -- in the fond hope that a number of the visitors will be rich Americans who can be persuaded to invest in Leyte.
        And so, whether we like it or not, we have a stake in the success of this harebrained scheme. And precisely because Mr. Carlos has once again staked the prestige of our country on a dubious project, we have no alternative but to make some positive suggestions which, we hope, will minimize the damage that we foresee.
        Our major concern is premised on three facts: first, these veterans are persons in their 70s -- with all the illnesses that septuagenarians are heir to; second, they will be living in tents; and third, October is the start of the monsoon season in Leyte (a fact, by the way, that General Kreuger's engineers cited when they argued against landing in Leyte).
        If several thousand 70-year-old veterans are made to live in tents during the monsoon season, how many of them are going to get sick? Even if we make the optimistic assumption that the cholera epidemic will be over by October, we still have to assume a higher incidence of gastrointestinal diseases.
        We therefore urge Secretary Carlos to make sure that there are a hundred or so doctors, nurses, paramedics, and gerontologists standing by at Red Beach. It also would be financially prudent to provide health and accident insurance for all the veterans who participate in the Leyte anniversary.
        It would be a tragedy -- would it not?  --  if someone who survived the attacks of General Tomoyuki Yamashita in 1944 were to succumb to the schemes of Secretary Carlos in 1994.