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- <text id=91TT1651>
- <title>
- July 29, 1991: World Notes:The Philippines
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1991
- July 29, 1991 The World's Sleaziest Bank
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- WORLD, Page 41
- World Notes
- THE PHILIPPINES
- A Natural Solution
- </hdr><body>
- <p> Mount Pinatubo, the volcano that covered much of Luzon with
- dust and ash last month, also proved a kind of mediator in the
- protracted bargaining over the future of U.S. bases there. The
- Philippine government had been demanding direct compensation of
- $400 million annually for a seven-year lease extension on Clark
- Air Base and the huge U.S. Navy facilities at Subic Bay.
- Washington was offering $360 million a year and wanted an
- eight- to 10-year lease.
- </p>
- <p> Negotiations wound up quickly last week after Secretary of
- Defense Dick Cheney announced that the U.S. was no longer
- interested in Clark because it would cost too much to repair the
- damage done by the volcano. The next day Manila agreed to a
- 10-year extension of the American lease on Subic Bay for an
- annual payment of $203 million, beginning in 1993.
- </p>
- <p> Even so, that may not be the end of it. The deal must be
- approved by two-thirds of the Philippine Senate. Jovito Salonga,
- president of the Senate, opposes any extension and predicts that
- ratification of the pact "will be difficult."
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
-
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