Bataan Field

Military obsolescence and strategic realignment. Following the end of World War II, the strategic need for a small, forward fighter base in Mariveles disappeared. US military air operations in the Philippines were consolidated at larger, more modern facilities like Clark Air Base and Cubi Point Naval Air Station. The site was later designated for economic and industrial development.

The site of the former Bataan Field has been completely redeveloped and is now an integral part of the Freeport Area of Bataan (FAB), a major industrial and economic zone formerly known as the Bataan Export Processing Zone (BEPZ). The original runway is no longer operational for aircraft. It is fragmented by public roads, and the land is occupied by numerous industrial buildings, factories, and a large-scale solar power farm. Portions of the old runway surface are still visible and are used as local access roads and for open storage by adjacent companies.

Bataan Field was a critically important pre-war and World War II United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) airfield. It was one of the last operational airfields for American and Filipino forces during the Battle of Bataan in early 1942, primarily hosting P-40 Warhawk fighter planes in their desperate defense against the Japanese invasion. After its capture by Japanese forces, the area became infamous as one of the starting points of the Bataan Death March, where American and Filipino prisoners of war began their brutal forced march to Camp O'Donnell. The airfield was recaptured by American forces in 1945 but was not maintained as a primary air base after the war. The ICAO code PH-0184 is an unofficial identifier, likely assigned by flight simulator communities, and is not an official code from the International Civil Aviation Organization.

There are no known plans to reopen or restore the original Bataan Field as an operational airport. The extensive and well-established industrial development on the site makes a reactivation unfeasible. However, the Authority of the Freeport Area of Bataan (AFAB) and the Bataan provincial government have periodically expressed long-term goals of developing a new commercial airport within the Freeport to support its logistics, business travel, and tourism. Any such project would likely require acquiring a new site or a massive, cost-prohibitive redevelopment, rather than a simple reactivation of the historic airfield.