US navy halts Subic Bay visits in wake of local death

The US navy has canceled visits to the Philippine port of Subic Bay amid public anger over accusations that a US marine killed a transgender Filipina in the adjacent city of Olangapo, officials said on Monday.

Foreign Department spokesman Charles Jose said the visits of three US ships to Subic this month have been canceled, while the head of the Subic Bay Freeport Zone said nine such visits scheduled for this year have been called off.

"The DFA (Department of Foreign Affairs) was informed through normal diplomatic channels of the cancellation of the visits to Subic of three ships for operational reasons," he said.

Jose told reporters he did not believe the cancellations were linked to anger stirred by the investigation of a US marine in last month's death of 26-year-old Jennifer Laude.

Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority chairman Robert Garcia said nine US ships due to dock at Subic this year had canceled their visits.

He said that two US navy ships were still scheduled to make port calls in Subic for "emergency repairs", but their crews would not be allowed to disembark.

Normally, two or three US navy ships make routine port calls every month for resupply in the free port, a former US naval base about an hour's drive from Manila, Garcia said.

He said the authority had been informed of the cancellations by the Subic Bay Freeport Chamber of Commerce, which includes the company that services US ships.

However, Garcia could not say why the visits were canceled. US embassy officials declined to comment.

Laude was found dead on Oct 12 in a cheap hotel with strangulation marks on her neck.

US marine Private First Class Joseph Scott Pemberton, who had just finished taking part in US-Philippine military exercises in Subic, had checked into the hotel with Laude and was the last person seen with her, police said.

Pemberton is now being detained at Philippine military headquarters while prosecutors consider charging him.

Activist groups have seized on the incident to attack the defense ties between the United States and its former colony.

(China Daily 11/04/2014 page11)