THE PHILIPPINES: Bitter Battle over Bases

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Subic Bay, a major liberty port for the U.S. Seventh Fleet, has a permanent base force of 8,000—swollen by as many as 9,000 sailors passing through on shore leave. Much of their contribution to the local economy is made in the honky-tonk town of Olongapo, where the principal commodity for sale is sex. About 15,000 Olongapo residents are registered "bar girls," many of them infected with a penicillin-resistant strain of gonorrhea known as "Viet Nam Rose." According to Navy estimates, American sailors spent $128 million in Olongapo last year—not all of it, of course, on recreational sex.

Defense analysts differ on how important these installations are to U.S. security interests. The majority view, as one State Department specialist puts it, is that "there is value to the bases for both parties." For that reason, the Administration is urging Congress to approve $120 million in economic and military aid for the Philippines in fiscal 1979. That is expected to make the U.S. bases somewhat less offensive to Marcos, and even to Imee.