CLARK FREEPORT, Pampanga, Philippines — A cemetery established here by the US Air Force for “dog heroes” has been ploughed through and laid over with soil overnight, prompting some sectors to cry foul.
“The K-9 Cemetery at the former US Air Force Base is considered a historical and cultural heritage of ours. The cemetery is a sacred ground. These dogs had military ranks, too, and served in the armed forces like regular servicemen. They were also heroes that protected and saved lives in the past,” said Lt. Guy Indra Hilbero of the 26th US Cavalry Philippine Scouts Memorial Regiment, a group recognized by the US Veterans of Foreign Wars.
Hilbero, in a statement furnished to The STAR, said the “desecration of the cemetery is in full violation of the Cultural Properties Preservation and Protection Act of the National Museum of the Philippines.”
The cemetery had been under the jurisdiction of Clark Development Corp. (CDC) since the US Air Force abandoned the base in 1992.
CDC public affairs and information chief Noel Tulabut insisted that the cemetery remained untouched.
But an ocular inspection by The STAR showed that the cemetery, with its 284 tombstones, was gone.
The K-9 Cemetery signboard remained, along with a low concrete pedestal where the statue of a US military officer and his trained dog once stood.
When the Americans left Clark, they removed the statue and sent it to the Security Forces Museum in Texas in the US.
The tombstones were “piled like garbage,” according to Hilbero, on one side of the cemetery.
“Every year there are many former US military men who pay their respects and visit this sacred ground,” Hilbero said.