Military, defense asked to explain fuel shipment

SEN. Imee Marcos yesterday asked the Department of National Defense and the Armed Forces of the Philippines to explain a shipment of some 39 million gallons of fuel of the US Navy from Pearl Harbor to Subic in Zambales.

The AFP declined to comment. The DND did not answer calls.

Marcos, the chair of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations said in a statement that data from several international shipping trackers showed that the oil cargo was loaded on Yosemite Trader, a US-registered tanker, at Pearl Harbor on December 20, and it entered Philippine territory on Tuesday.

She said that as of Wednesday morning, the tanker remained in its position some 50 km west of Subic Bay, based on shipping tracker Marine Vessel Traffic.

Marcos said the “inexplicable silence” of both the Philippine and US governments before the voyage “only raised suspicions about the pre-positioning of military supplies in the country amid predictions of an eventual war between China and the US over Taiwan.”

“Not again! This is strike three in attempting to deprive the Filipino people of the right to know,” she said.

Marcos earlier exposed what she said was a clandestine attempt of the US to house Afghan refugees in the country, and advisory lapses concerning multiple landings of C-17 Globemasters of the US Air Force in the country’s domestic and international airports.

She said the Mutual Defense Treaty between the US and the Philippines “is not a license to leave the Filipino people in the dark.”