US embassy not moving to Subic Bay

The American government has no plans to transfer its embassy in Manila to the Subic Bay Freeport in Bataan and Zambales, United States embassy spokesperson Rebecca Thompson said on Monday.

"Absolutely no. The US embassy has no plan to move. We are staying here," Thompson said in a phone interview.

Talk about the transfer plan have been going around in Subic for almost a year now but the US embassy has made "no official correspondence" related to that, according to Armand Arreza, administrator of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority, a government corporation overseeing the development of the Freeport.

The freeport is a former American naval base. At one time home to the US Seventh Fleet, Subic was closed following the Philippine Senate's rejection in September 1991 of the extension of the 1947 military bases agreement.

Arreza said official correspondence from the US embassy had covered only visits and military exercises for the Philippine-US Visiting Forces Agreement, a treaty signed in 1999 in support of the bilateral defense program of the two countries.

Reports circulating in the freeport said the transfer plan arose due to a terror threat in Manila.

The site that was purportedly being eyed is in the area of the former Cubi Point Naval Air Station or Radford Field, now near the Subic Bay International Airport.

A retired Filipino military general has worked as a consultant in the plan, reports said.

SBMA Chair Feliciano Salonga, a former Philippine Navy officer, said he has not received any word from the US embassy about such plan. By Tonette Orejas - Inquirer Central Luzon Desk