A Filipino tribe fights to stay as a Smart City' rises on a former US base

"Two hours north of the capital, Manila, on the vast grounds of a former United States military base, the Philippine government is pushing ahead with plans for a multibillion-dollar smart city that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr hopes to turn into a future mecca for tourists and a magnet for investors. The New Clark City, which is being built on the former Clark Air Base, is central to the government's effort to attract foreign investment and ease congestion in Manila, where nearly 15 million people live."

"Caught between the rising new city and the site of the proposed stadium lies the Indigenous Aeta village of Sapang Kawayan. For the roughly 500 families who live there, in houses of nipa grass and rattan, the developments spell disaster. We were here before the Americans, even before the Spanish, said Petronila Capiz, 60, the chieftain of the Aeta Hungey tribe in Sapang Kawayan. And the land continues to be taken from us."

"Historians say American colonisers, who seized the Philippines from Spain in 1898, took over the 32,000-hectare (80,000-acre) tract that became Clark Air Base in the 1920s, dispossessing the Aetas, a seminomadic and dark-skinned people thought to be among the archipelago's earliest inhabitants. Many were displaced, though some moved deeper into the jungle inside the base and were employed as labourers. The US turned over the base to the Philippine government in 1991, some four decades after granting the country independence. Since then, the Bases Conversion and Development Authority, or BCDA,"

The Philippine government is building New Clark City on the former Clark Air Base to attract foreign investment and reduce Manila congestion. Planned projects include new train lines, expanded airport runways, and a $515m stadium intended to host major events. The Indigenous Aeta village of Sapang Kawayan, home to roughly 500 families living in nipa and rattan houses, lies between the city and the proposed stadium site. The Aetas claim ancestral occupancy predating Spanish and American colonization and report repeated land dispossession since US seizure of the base in the 1920s. The community is racing to establish legal land claims to avoid displacement.

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