BY ASHZEL HACHERO and VICTOR REYES
THE United States Embassy in Manila yesterday confirmed that a commercial tanker is at Subic Bay in Zambales to transport fuel from Pearl Harbor in Hawaii but said all arrangements for the transfer were made through proper channels.
The embassy through its spokesperson Kanishka Gangopadhyay issued the statement after Sen. Imee Marcos on Wednesday demanded an explanation from the government about the transfer of 39 million gallons of fuel to the former US military facility.
Gangopadhyay explained that the transfer is one of multiple shipments of “safe, clean fuel from the Red Hill facility to other locations in the Pacific.”
“We can confirm that the Yosemite Trader, a commercial tanker, is currently in the vicinity of Subic Bay, Philippines in order to transfer clean fuel from the US military facility at Red Hill, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, to a commercial storage facility at Subic Bay,” the embassy spokesperson said.
“All arrangements for the transfer and storage of this fuel were made through the proper channels, using established logistics contracts with Philippine commercial entities,” he added.
The Department of National said, “The shipment of fuel from Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, USA to a storage facility in the Subic Bay Freeport in the Philippines via the commercial tanker Yosemite Trader is part of regular commercial transactions between the US government and Philippine companies.”
DND spokesman Arsenio Andolong did not provide additional details about the shipment.
“The Armed Forces of the Philippines has nothing to explain,” Armed Forces spokesman Col. Medel Aguilar told reporters at Camp Aguinaldo.
“In fact, the fuel shipment and the process that was followed by the US government, which are all administrative in nature, did not involve the participation of the Armed Forces of the Philippines,” added Aguilar.
Navy chief Vice Adm. Toribio Adaci Jr said he has “no comment” on the matter.
Marcos earlier lamented the move as the US “prepositioning” of military supplies in the country amid continuing tension in the region, especially in the South China Sea where Manila is embroiled in a maritime territorial dispute with an increasingly aggressive Beijing.
She described the transfer of fuels as US “strike three” in depriving the Filipinos of their rights to know.
The first strike was Washington’s previous request to Manila to house Afghan refugees and an unadvised landing of US military aircraft in the country.
Marcos, presidential sister and chair of the Senate committee on foreign relations, earlier asked for greater transparency in US military operations in the country as she asked the Department of National Defense and the Armed Forces of the Philippines to explain the transfer of fuels from Pearl Harbor to Subic.
She also called on Philippine military, defense, and foreign affairs officials last year to determine if covert US military flights aggravated the already tense situation in the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait and to weigh the risks to public safety.
Marcos also noted that Subic is not among nine agreed on sites under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA).
The Americans are allowed to preposition or store supplies at the EDCA sites for various operations, including disaster response.
