Readers respond

We have settled back in on the Rock.  This is the slow time of the year and we have not had much contact with visitors with the exception of Bill and Midge Kirwan, whom we have written about on a few occasions.  It was wonderful to visit with them again!  They try to come here at least twice a year and stay for several days each time at the Corregidor Inn.  We first met them in 2008, soon after our arrival on the island.

The weather has been eerily similar each day.  We have been having almost full sun from 9:00 AM until 3:00 PM.  It’s hot and humid.  We usually hear the first thunder between 1:30 and 2:30 each afternoon.  It clouds up late in the day, and we have been getting some rain most nights.  When there are big storms, they are over the mainland.  One night we had a period of frequent lightening with almost unending rolls of thunder…but no rain here!

We had reported to you that Manila was inundated with rain while we were vacationing in the States.  A few people from other parts of Luzon wrote to say, “Hey, we got it here, too.”  Of course we did not mean to imply that only Metro Manila was affected.  Certainly when a large rainstorm affects Manila, outlying areas also suffer.  Corregidor is pretty much flood proof, but building and especially tree damage is always possible.  Speaking of storms, a friend of a friend passed along a few photos taken during the flood.  No one seems sure who took the photos.  In any case, we pass them along, once again to show the resilience of the Filipino people.  By the time we had returned to Manila, by all outward appearances, life was pretty much back to normal.

We received several responses about our last newsletter.  Our friend Leslie Murray of the Filipino-American Memorial Endowment wrote this about the cinema restoration:

I would like to add that FAME assisted CFI considerably in effecting the restoration of Cine Corregidor. FAME - through the American Chamber - engaged the pro-bono professional technical assist of Palafox Associates (www.palafoxassociates.com) under their founder "Felino "Jun" Palafox, in an advisory capacity for this project. 

Architect Palafox sent a team of four engineers to the island (Beth Romulo, Art Matibag and I accompanied them) to survey the site and give their recommendations.  However the actual work was done by a government agency; best possible efforts within the allowed budget.  (I have to say I question the metal window frames - given the sea air erosion factor.)

So, FAME is not just "markers" – we have assisted in other aspects of preservation including lighting the Eternal Flame and the original rehabilitation of the Pacific War Memorial - with assist from the staff of the former Museo ng Maynila and the Ayala Museum.

Thanks, Leslie, for that information.

Dear Steve and Marcia,

Maligayang pagdating! May I sincerely add: Welcome home!

Reading between the lines of your narrative re the repairs/construction done on The Rock, am far from privy of knowing the real score but I venture to say that IT'S MORE FUN IN THE PHILIPPINES is attending to the needs of The Rock which is being taken cared of - not for quite sometime but it seems - throughout the life span of a "heaven sent couple.” 

Admittedly we have a very limited browsing of information channels containing info bits re the activities of our government particularly on the upgrading/improvement of tourism facilities. We truly believed that the secretary of the Department of Tourism is doing his best to upgrade/improve the popular tourism facilities in our country - for obvious reasons. Thank you for painstakingly noting the notable improvement of the tourism facility which I am sincerely noting - de facto - to be "under your care!" Maraming salamat po, for informing us!
Very truly yours
Fred

Fred, we are glad to report on what has taken place, but as you can see, the credit goes to the Corregidor Foundation, Inc., and FAME.  We do hope that our being here encourages more work to be done, and hope that FAME, CFI, and the Department of Tourism continue to make improvements while at the same time maintaining “the best-preserved battlefield of WW II.”

Steve, regarding General MacArthur and President Quezon's car . . . MacArthur’s car is in National Historical Institute (NHI) Building and President Quezon’s car is in a museum in Baler, Quezon Province . . . Ronald from CFI

Thanks, Ronald, for letting us know.  In addition, a couple of our readers sent the following link:

http://oboi-laboy.blogspot.com/2011/12/gen-macarthur-car-in-baler.html

Finally, we received this anonymous comment on our blog website, which contains all of our previous newsletters:

This is my first time reading your blog and honestly I am hooked. I have been reading articles about WWII for the past 7 years now since my grandmother passed away around 2005. My grandfather was also a war veteran, but he missed the Bataan Death March when he was courting my grandmother that time, he saw glimpsed of the march but eventually ran away for his love to my grandmom, a love story I will never forget, an AWOL to remember indeed. :) Thank you for building history and can't wait to see more.

All comments submitted to the blog-site are anonymous unless a writer includes his/her name and email address in the actual message.  So we don’t know who sent this encouraging comment.  If any reader of the blog would like to contact us directly, send an email to steveandmarciaontherock@gmail.com.

Steve and Marcia on the Rock