THE PHILIPPINES: The U.S. Gets Out

On Pearl Harbor Day last week, the Stars and Stripes fluttered down a flagpole, and the Philippine flag rose proudly in its place over the Philippine harbor city of Olongapo. The U.S. finally was handing the sprawling city of 60,000 back to the Filipinos, after half a century of American rule. Even after the Philippines got independence in 1946, the Navy held onto Olongapo by treaty and ran it with a stern hand as an adjunct of its big Subic Bay base, now a $250 million complex of cranes, drydocks and warehouses that service the Pacific Fleet.

The Navy's presence brought prosperity and order to thousands of Olongapans, but to sensitive Philippine nationalists it smacked of colonialism. In October, as part of a new bases agreement, the U.S. at last agreed to part with Olongapo. "A dramatic act of good will,'' said Philippine Foreign Secretary Felixberto Serrano happily as all Olongapo celebrated with parades and fireworks.