WITHOUT AN APCH CLRNC; FLT CREW OF B757-200 INBOUND TO RPLC DSND BELOW CLRED ALT WHEN CLRED VIA A 12 MI ARC WHICH COINCIDED WITH AN INITIAL APCH ROUTING.

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THE CAPT WAS FLYING. ABOUT 120 MI FROM CLARK FIELD; WE STARTED OUR INITIAL DSCNT AND WERE GIVEN SEVERAL STEPDOWN DSCNTS BY MANILA RADAR CTLRS. MANILA CTLR DSNDED US TO HIS MINIMUM RADAR ALT AND CLRED US TO PROCEED DIRECT TO CLARK VOR. ABOUT 40 MI FROM THE CLARK FIELD WE WERE TOLD TO CONTACT CLARK APCH. CLARK APCH CTLRS DON'T HAVE A RADAR SO WE HAD TO START GIVING THEM SHORT POS RPTS. ABOUT 20 MI FROM THE FIELD; WE WERE GIVEN A CLRNC TO DSND TO 7000 FT AND CLRED TO ROSER INTXN VIA CLARK 12 DME ARC FOR THE ILS RWY 20L. ROSER IS THE INITIAL APCH FIX FOR THE ILS RWY 20L. WE WERE TOLD THAT WE WERE #3 FOR THE APCH. WE JOINED THE 12 DME ARC USING LNAV FULLY EXPECTING TO JOIN THE LOC INBOUND FOR THE ILS APCH. THE APCH ALT DEPICTED FOR THE ARC IS 4000 FT. CAPT COMMANDED 4000 FT ON ALT WINDOW THINKING HE WAS GETTING HIGH AND NEEDED TO DSND TO 4000 FT ASAP. ABOUT THE SAME TIME WE WERE TOLD TO PROCEED DIRECT TO ROSER AND HOLD. I GOT VERY BUSY BUILDING THE HOLDING PATTERN ON FMC. IT TOOK ME A FEW EXTRA SECONDS TO GET IT LOADED RIGHT. BY THAT TIME; CAPT WAS ALREADY DSNDING TO 4000 FT WHICH I DID NOT NOTICE BECAUSE I WAS HEADS DOWN TRYING TO BUILD THIS HOLD ON FMC. THE ACFT JOINED THE HOLD AS EXPECTED. I RPTED TO CLARK APCH OUR HOLDING POS OVER ROSER AT 4000 FT. HE QUESTIONED OUR ALT AND TOLD US TO CLB BACK UP TO 7000 FT RIGHT AWAY. HE HAD ANOTHER ACFT ON A L DOWNWIND DSNDING FOR THE SAME APCH AND RWY. WE CLBED BACK UP QUICKLY AND THEN THE CTLR TOLD US TO MAINTAIN 5000 FT WHICH WOULD BE GOOD ENOUGH. ABOUT 1 MIN LATER WE SAW ANOTHER ACFT VISUALLY. AFTER HE LANDED WE WERE GIVEN LNDG CLRNC FROM THE HOLD. WE COMPLETED THE APCH NORMALLY. LESSON LEARNED: NEVER LEAVE ASSIGNED ALT FOR LOWER EVEN IF YOU'RE STABILIZED ON AN INITIAL APCH SEGMENT UNLESS YOU'VE HEARD THE MAGIC WORDS 'CLRED FOR THE APCH!'