AT NIGHT, and I will describe it poetically: As evening falls and the world seeks shelter in the gentle fold of evening, a certain stretch of the Friendship Road in Angeles City will brighten when the eclectic lights start to glow and flicker. The lights which were more prominently luminous in the Balibago district in the early years are now switched to what we call now the Korean Town. Formerly, it was an area where souvenir stores lined up on both sides when the American GIs and their families occupied then Clark Air Force Base.
I kept telling friends from Manila that on any night, if you happen to be in that particular stretch of the Friendship Road located at the Anonas district, for sure you'll get the feeling that you are in the Gangnam area of Seoul in South Korea.
Almost a kilometer of restaurants, hotels, videoke and grocery stores are lined up on both sides of the road. Colorful blinking lights and neon signs are in Korean characters. More buildings and several commercial establishments are now being constructed after the bridge going towards Porac.
What’s your take? Samgyupsal, shabu-shabu or saku-saku chicken? Korean slang words we commonly hear now, and are added to our local dictionary. The Koreans "invaded" Angeles City and slowly but surely they have built their own community in and around this district and filled those vacant residential houses of nearby subdivisions. We discovered that most Koreans are good businessmen, patient, persevering and focused. BTW, Mayor Pogi Lazatin in a meeting told them under his watch "dilihensiya" or extortion practice by a certain group will be stopped.
Why are they here, you may want to ask. Obviously for various reasons. But first, the background. Flashback: The Korean Peninsula was divided into two, the north and the south. The Korean War raged for three years, 1950 to 1953. The war divided the country into a communist northern half and an American-occupied southern half, the division marked by the 38th parallel as the demarcation line.
And until today, there is no reunification between the two Koreas. There were several efforts but all failed. And it seems the peninsula will never be reunited.
Few years ago I travelled to Panmunjong, the last Korean city before North Korea with my friends Ferdinand Beltran, Martin Vitug and Pampanga Board Member Ananias Canlas Jr. and saw for ourselves the no man's land that separates the two Koreas.
Our travel guide was so impressed when I told him about the participation of our Filipino soldiers during that war; that our soldiers were the last combatants repelling the onrushing North Korean contingents aided by communist Chinese troops. They were the soldiers belonging to the Philippine Expeditionary Forces to Korea (PEFTOK) where former President Fidel Ramos saw action.
The post-war planners had intended the division between the north and south would to be a temporary administrative solution, but to this day the reunification effort on both sides has been stonewalled. And every now and then, due to change in leadership from Kim Il Sung, considered as great leader of the North Korean nation, to his son Kim Jong Il and now the very young and grandson Kim Jong Un, would intermittently send shivers to the south every time the latter would order tests of their nuclear arsenals. That's one good reason why many Koreans are placing investments in other nations, particularly in our country. The experience of the South Vietnamese people during the fall of Saigon in the late 60s after it was overrun by the North Vietnamese soldiers may have influenced actions now of the Koreans coming from the south.
The other reason why mostly they are settled here in Angeles City and some moved to Baguio City, Metro Manila and in Cebu City in the south, is because of proximity. The activation of the Clark International Airport must have contributed largely to the coming of the Koreans. One of their legacy carriers, Asiana Airlines and some budget airlines, make regular flights to Clark. Besides the proximity, the business climate in Angeles City is another attraction.