Gordon greeting various dignitaries | Music
| 01.00.00.00 | ||
| Williams: He counts Prime Ministers and Presidents as friends. But who is this man shaking hands with a parade of the world's most powerful.
| 01.12 | ||
Gordon entering office | In his country, they just call him Dick - Big Dig Gordon - the corporate captain caught in a bitter struggle with one time friend, now fierce enemy, President Joseph Estrada.
| 00.23 | ||
| Estrada: Because I don't trust him.
| 00.35 | ||
Map Philippines | Music
|
| ||
Subic Bay | Williams: This is Subic Bay, the jewel of economic assets in the Philippines. | 00.49 | ||
| Already bigger than Singapore, it's potentially one of Asia's greatest free ports. Since the U. S. Navy was kicked out, Subic's attracted billions of dollars of investment and created tens of thousands of jobs. | 00.56 | ||
| The man many credit with this miraculous transformation is Dick Gordon.
| 01.09 | ||
Gordon | Gordon: The whole world was astounded at the fact that not only did we show our honesty and our integrity, but we proved that Filipinos were a very industrious people and that they could do it in their own country.
| 01.14 | ||
Estrada amongst crowd | Williams: But the acclaim for local hero Dick Gordon was short lived. When political heavyweight Joseph Estrada was swept to power, his first act as president was to sack Gordon as chairman of the Subic Bay free port authority. And the fight for Subic Bay was on.
| 01.26 | ||
Estrada | Estrada: You know that this is the prerogative of the President. The President must have a man of his trust and confidence.
| 01.43 | ||
| Williams: Mr. Gordon doesn't have that.
| 01.52 | ||
| Estrada He doesn't have that.
| 01.53 | ||
Gordon
Super: RICHARD GORDON Fmr Chairman, Subic Bay Authority | Gordon: In our country we have a lack of moral back bone, back bone to be able to stand up to presidents when they're wrong. And that's why it took us 21 years to get rid of Marcos. I don't want another 21 years. I'm going to stand my ground.
| 01.55 | ||
Shots of Olongapo | Williams: And Dick's digging in, here in Olongapo, the city overseeing Subic. It's here the vision of local hero Dick Gordon has brought jobs and prosperity to people who thought the good times were gone.
| 02.11 | ||
Payumo in Chopper | Williams: Others now have their own vision of Subic, a vision that pointedly excludes Dick Gordon. Enter, the President's man.
| 02.31 | ||
| Felicito Payumo has been appointed by Estrada to succeed Gordon as Subic Bay chairman. But right now the new boss is without an office. Gordon's supporters have barricaded themselves in the main building.
|
| ||
Payumo
Super: FELICITO PAYUMO Chairman, Subic Bay Authority | Payumo: The police force here is not out to start violence. They're here to instill law and order. They are here to help install the new chairman. Hopefully, with the cooperation of Mr. Gordon, no violence can erupt again. We should learn from the lesson of July 26.
| 03.02 | ||
Riot footage | Williams: July 26 was the day Dick Gordon discovered the President meant business.
| 03.29 | ||
| FX: Riot
|
| ||
| Williams: Ignoring a pending court decision on who's legally entitled to the job, police armed with assault rifles and tear gas moved in to move Dick Gordon's men on.
| 03.40 | ||
| Those resisting copped the full force of an anti-terror squad. Gordon: We were all sleeping here, after having prayers and preparing for Mass. | 03.55 | ||
Gordon | People are sleeping, women and children, when all of a sudden, you know, troops coming in with M16s and M60s and came up here with batons and started hitting people left and right. Dragging women by the hair.
| 04.00 | ||
| Williams: Losing the main office, Dick's men fought back, forcing outnumbered police to flee.
| 04.23 | ||
| FX: Riot
|
| ||
| Williams: Rubber bullets helped restore order and some police dignity, but not before scores of civilians and police were injured. With business confidence shattered, Dick's dream had turned into a nightmare.
| 04.36 | ||
Gordon | Gordon: When the soldiers started going in, and breaking the windows in the building. And every time that rifle butt hit the glass of that building, it was... Hitting people in the chest, in their hearts because they worked very hard for it.
| 04.51 | ||
| Williams: How do you feel about that?
Gordon: I think my expression speaks for itself. And it's been a terrible pain. Not for me, personal pain for me, but for the community who had worked their way to getting themselves jobs or the parents of these people who now have jobs who are here. I guess I feel - they need a pat on the back instead of a kick of a rifle butt.
| 05.09 | ||
Military police | Williams: But more rifle butts are on the way, as President Estrada marshals more pressure to break Dick's grip. | 05.50 | ||
Caisip with troops | After the riot, it was left to a cool headed colonel to call the shots.
| 06.00 | ||
| Colonel Rodolpho Caisip is a veteran anti-terrorist fighter.
| 06.08 | ||
| Caisip: You are here only to quell a defiant crowd, meaning to say we will not fight them, we will not kill them...
| 06.12 | ||
Police training | FX: Whistle/Police training
|
| ||
| Williams: The colonel's men practice the moves of so-called tolerant crowd control, but there is no doubt when the next order came, there would be no running.
| 06.25 | ||
Caisip | Caisip: As much as possible we would not like to hurt anybody. But as I told you earlier, we do not want that our men will be annihilated as what happened before - but they've got to defend themselves.
| 06.39 | ||
Gordon | Gordon: They are the paid mercenaries of Mr. Payumo. | 06.57 | ||
| A government that relies on force is a very, very weak government. It must be a government based on principle, based on law. And that is why they're trying to force the issue. It's a government of weak minds, weak values, and weak principles.
|
| ||
Religious statue | Singing
|
| ||
| Williams: Strength of character is a virtue Dick Gordon prides himself on. Among his supporters, he's virtually a saint, but relations with President Estrada have sunk so low they're putting their faith in his leadership, prayer and song.
| 07.30 | ||
Group of Gordon supporters | Singing: Country, country, country my country The fight is not over yet We win through the hard work of the people Fight for it, fight, fight for it.
| 07.46 | ||
TV Comedy program | Williams: But not everyone's taking this tussle quite so seriously.
| 08.11 | ||
| Woman on TV: We all have to band together so they won't take away our Subic vase.
|
| ||
| Williams: A TV comedy team highlights the commitment of Dick's wife, Mayor Kate Gordon, to stand by her man.
|
| ||
| Woman on TV: Don't touch my Dick.... Don't touch my Dick!
| 08.27 | ||
| William: Even the wig-wearing Payumo gets a serve in a skit with a message.
| 08.38 | ||
| Man on TV [Payumo]: Dick, you're too hard - there's an order from upstairs... the boss says you must let go of the vase.
Man [Gordon]: No. Have you forgotten we have a principle here? We don't give up what we've toiled for.
| 08.40 | ||
| Williams: But the dispute cuts so deeply into personalities, it's not easily laughed off, especially by Dick, who has a serious sense of his own importance. | 08.55 | ||
| A Gordon family photo gallery dominates the foyer of the new city hall. | 09.01 | ||
| With his father, mother, and now wife all serving as local mayor's, Dick's inherited dynastic pretensions.
| 09.13 | ||
Gordon | Gordon: What's a dynasty? The Kennedys, are they are a dynasty? My father was assassinated. Kennedy at least was shot only once. My father had several hand grenades thrown at him on different occasions, our house burnt. That's how this so-called dynasty started. We don't put a gun in anybody's head here to say vote for us.
| 09.21 | ||
Memorial plaque | Williams: Here on February the 20th 1967 Dick's father, Mayor James L. Gordon, was gunned down by a hired assassin.
|
| ||
| Gordon: Well, he was an anti-crime crusader, he was going after the syndicates.
| 09.50 | ||
| Williams: It was the height of the Vietnam War, and for the next 20 years Subic was Uncle Sam's pride of the Pacific - the United States' largest foreign naval base.
| 09.57 | ||
Olongapo night club | Music
|
| ||
| Williams: Neighbouring Olongapo was the highly desired R&R stop for millions of red blooded American seamen. For much of that time, Gordon was mayor of Olongapo - in its heyday better known as Sin City - sin worth millions to the Filipinos. But to then Senator Joseph Estrada, it was a stain on the national character.
| 10.13 | ||
Estrada
Super:
PRIVILEGE SPEECH ON U.S. BASES Senate Session Hall April 19, 1988 | Estrada: Let this be our finest hour, as we face the judgment of history. We have become so dependent on the Americans that we have never learnt to be self-sufficient. Our country has been seen as a nation of beggars, a nation of prostitutes, a nation of cheaters, a nation of domestic helpers. And if we do not assert ourselves today, we will also be known as a nation of cowards. This I cannot accept. And this we must not accept.
| 10.36 | ||
Anti-bases movie | Williams: It was during the making of this anti-bases movie that then Senator Estrada first fell out with old friend Dick Gordon. To the educated and worldly Dick, Estrada is a national embarrassment who would frighten foreign investment.
| 11.11 | ||
| A B-grade actor, whose big screen appeal doesn't qualify him to lead.
| 11.29 | ||
Gordon | Gordon: I think he feels very insecure that a friend of his does not believe in his capability to govern this country. Although I've never said that in my life, that's the first time I've said that. I have had my doubts about that, and I've said that before, and I feel that there are better men who could better govern this country.
| 11.37 | ||
Gordon with US navy man | Williams: But to Estrada, Dick is an arrogant elitist who happily sold Filipino dignity for U. S. dollars.
| 11.53 | ||
| After a bitter national debate, the Americans were finally given their marching orders. And, as the stars and stripes came down for the last time over Subic, it was a sad day for Dick, who'd fought hard to save the bases.
| 12.05 | ||
Cullen in car at night | Not so for Catholic missionary, Father Shay Cullen, who for more than 20 years has been locked in a moral battle with Gordon over the dark side of Subic's success.
| 12.24 | ||
| Cullen: This is a prostitution area, but it's well known for using minors and children...
| 12.35 | ||
| Williams: Cullen holds former mayor Dick Gordon personally responsible for failing to clamp down on a sex industry that exploited countless Filipino women, and corrupted a culture into accepting the abuse and sale of its children.
| 12.42 | ||
Cullen
Super: FATHER SHAY CULLEN Catholic Missionary | Cullen: Mr. Gordon set up here, the you know, the pleasure dome in all of the Philippines. And he made an adult Disneyland out of Olongapo. And children as young as four years old were being sold for sex on the streets of Olongapo, and we opposed that. We say that's wrong. And we say the administration became the biggest pimps of these women and children in this city for nearly 15 years. And we openly - no one else will criticise him, because they were quite afraid.
| 12.56 | ||
Gordon | Gordon: He's a professional finger pointer, a fault finder, and he never has contributed anything to the community, that is why he is not popular in this community. | 13.27 | ||
| And if he feels so strongly about that - I mean if we had been in Singapore, he'd have been kicked out to Ireland, then perhaps he could be in Omagh.
|
| ||
Cullen at community centre | Williams: Far from the carnage of that uncharitable wish, Father Cullen is still in Olongapo caring for the casualties of Subic Bay's sexual occupation. | 13.47 | ||
| He runs a sanctuary for scores of girls abused and at risk of slipping into prostitution at tender ages. And he accuses Gordon of intimidating those who question his leadership.
| 14.00 | ||
Cullen | Cullen: We've been, you know, threatened and harassed and put under surveillance by Mr. Gordon. I have documents given to me from the office the security chief here at the free port, showing that they had code names for me and my staff, that we were under surveillance, that they had - trying to develop a dossier, you know, it was ridiculous.
| 14.13 | ||
Gordon with aides | Williams: Gordon claims such charges belittle a lifetime of selfless public service and a dedication to forge a new national spirit.
| 14.38 | ||
Gordon | Gordon: We're changing the mould of the people's minds here. This is what Dick Gordon has always been all about. And if I may be a little bit immodest here, the whole philosophy behind the administration of the Gordons has always been to try and change the attitude of our people that you are not victims. That we can do something about that ourselves.
| 14.48 | ||
Payumo
Super: FELICITO PAYUMO Chairman, Subic Bay Authority | Payumo: Well, I say Dick, you've gone a long way. That I must admit. But there is still many things to do. You've done it with the help of the President. You yourself acknowledge that it's the help of the president that made the difference, as far as Subic is concerned. Will you deprive Subic of the support of the president? I think if you really love Subic, let us save Subic.
| 15.06 | ||
Subic Bay port | Williams: And Subic is in desperate need of some help. Trade, investment and tourism has ground to a halt. Foreign investors say Subic is bleeding badly, and Gordon should just make a dignified exit.
| 15.46 | ||
| But for those on the right side of the chairman, life has been good. Old school chum Tony Trillo, believes in the Gordon magic. He's sunk millions into duty free stores, harbour cruises and an exclusive resort.
| 16.01 | ||
View from cruiser | Trillo: I think Dick has grown a notch. I think now he's sort of humbled by that, and that will even make him stronger. | 16.15 | ||
Trillo | The lower you go, the higher you can rise, and I think that's exactly what's going to happen to Dick Gordon. He needed that. He needed to realise that, you know, you're not in control of everything all the time. And that's a very humbling effect. He can use that to good stead, some day when he becomes president. And I think he will be.
|
| ||
Chandelier/Estrada | Williams: But right now presidential power is firmly in the hands of Joseph Estrada. Embarrassed and demeaned by Dick Gordon, it's now time for the presidential payback.
| 16.40 | ||
| Gordon is facing charges of sedition - his defiance at Subic seen as an act of rebellion against the state.
| 16.54 | ||
| FX: Protest
|
| ||
| Williams: Adding to Gordon's woes, just a few day's ago the Supreme Court threw out his legal challenge to remain Subic Bay chief. | 17.04 | ||
| And while his supporters turned out to protest, it was a dark day for Dick - he's lost the battle for Subic Bay. But his march for Malacanang - the presidential palace - may have just begun. | 17.13
ENDS 17.28 | ||
CREDITS: |
|
|
| |
| Reporter EVAN WILLIAMS Cameras DAVID LELAND Sound KATE GUNN Editor GARTH THOMAS Producer IAN ALTSCHWAGER
|
|
| |