US tanker cancels plan to move military fuel to Philippines

A US tanker has canceled a plan to transfer a fuel shipment from a naval facility in Hawaii to a former US military base in the Philippines due to the lack of a diplomatic clearance from Manila, an issue that a Philippine lawmaker had linked to tensions over Taiwan.

“Yosemite Trader has not entered the waters of Subic Bay and was not able to discharge its cargo at the storage facility as earlier reported,” Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority said in a statement on Friday.

Philippine Senator Imee Marcos, sister of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., had asked Manila’s Defense department and military earlier this week to explain the planned transfer of fuel from a US military facility at Red Hill, Pearl Harbor in Hawaii to Subic, a former US naval base turned industrial zone.

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

The Philippine leader has bolstered defense ties with the U.S., granting them access to more Philippine military bases, including those near Taiwan. Subic is not among the sites covered by the two allies’ Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement.

Yosemite Trader carried 5 million gallons of F-76, a military fuel for ships, SBMA said. Its agent Parsh Marine Philippines Inc., applied for entry to Subic on Jan. 2 to transfer the fuel to a storage facility there.

“In the morning of the scheduled arrival however, ship agent Parsh Marine requested for the cancellation of the vessel’s entry clearance, accordingly due to the absence of a ‘diplomatic clearance’ from the Department of Foreign Affairs,” SBMA said.

Kanishka Gangopadhyay, spokesperson for the US Embassy in Manila, said the embassy won’t comment on SBMA’s statement. On Thursday, he confirmed the fuel transfer, saying it’s “one of multiple shipments of safe, clean fuel from the Red Hill facility to other locations in the Pacific.”

“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 said in a statement.

The Philippines’ defense department on Thursday said the fuel shipment “is part of regular commercial transactions between the US government and Philippine companies.”