SBMA: US oil tanker not cleared to enter Subic Bay

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 12) – The Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) on Friday clarified that an oil tanker carrying fuel from the US did not enter the freeport as it did not receive diplomatic clearance from the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).

The US Embassy confirmed that Washington had entered a contract with Filipino companies to transfer the fuel from Red Hill Underground Storage Facility in Honolulu, Hawaii to the Philippine Coastal Storage and Pipeline Corporation.

The embassy said all arrangements for the transfer and storage of the fuel were made through proper channels, using established logistics contracts with Philippine commercial entities.

Parsh Marine, the Yosemite Trader’s agent, then applied for entry clearance on Jan. 2 but subsequently canceled this due to the absence of DFA clearance as of Jan. 9, the date of its scheduled arrival. Based on Marine Traffic data gathered on Thursday, the tanker appears to be in waters west of Pangasinan, still within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.

The SBMA clarified that the Yosemite Trader only made it to the vicinity waters of Subic Bay but never actually entered the freeport. It has not unloaded its cargo of five million gallons of F-76 military ship fuel either.

Senator Imee Marcos earlier claimed the ship was carrying 39 million gallons of fuel. She slammed the «inexplicable silence» of the US and Philippine governments regarding the deal, saying it 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.

Meanwhile, the arrival of the tanker has also drawn flak from progressive groups who pointed out that the transfer was to a storage facility in Subic Bay, which is not one of the nine Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement sites in the Philippines where the United States can station troops and equipment on a rotational basis.