Another US ship set to make Subic port call

MANILA, Philippines - Another US vessel will make a port call in Subic even as the US Navy has yet to extricate its warship that ran aground in Tubbataha Reef.

USS Cheyenne, a Los Angeles-class submarine, is scheduled to arrive in Subic today (Feb. 1) for a “routine port visit,” an advisory from the US Embassy said.

“This stop in Subic will permit the Cheyenne to replenish supplies as well as offer its crew an opportunity for rest and relaxation,” the advisory read. 

The USS Guardian, which ran aground in Tubbataha Reef last Jan. 17, also visited Subic before the incident happened.

USS Cheyenne is named after the town of Cheyenne, Wyoming. The submarine is assigned to the US Navy’s Seventh Fleet, the unit where USS Guardian also belongs.

USS Cheyenne is home-ported in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii and was commissioned in 1996. It is also the last Los Angeles-class submarine to be built by the US.

US ships have been conducting frequent “routine port calls” in Philippine waters after US bared plans to deploy majority of its naval fleet to the Pacific by 2020.

The move is in line with the US’s efforts to boost its presence in the Asia Pacific.

On Jan. 17, USS Guardian ran aground at the Tubbataha Reef in Sulu Sea, triggering calls for the US to rehabilitate the area.

The 1,300-ton, 68-meter-long warship had just completed a port call in Subic Bay and was en route to Indonesia and when the grounding happened.

Tubbataha Reef has been named a World Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization owing to its extensive coral network.

The reef spans 130,028 hectares and was declared a protected area, which means that swimming or diving in the area requires special permits from the government.

The environmental threat posed by the grounding of the ship has prompted critics and activists to call for the scrapping of the Mutual Defense Treaty between the US and the Philippines.

The US Navy has attributed the grounding to “faulty navigation chart data.”

Some lawmakers and groups, however, are not convinced by the US’s explanation and called for an investigation.

Ferdinand Golez, former flag- officer-in-command of the Navy, earlier said the incident may have been caused by a human error and cannot be attributed solely to faulty charts.

US Ambassador to the Philippines Harry Thomas Jr. has expressed regret over the incident and has vowed to help in removing the ship as expeditiously as possible.

Despite the apology, President Aquino said the investigation on the grounding would continue since the ship’s crew cannot be exempted from having to comply with the law.

The US Navy initially planned to lift the USS Guardian to minimize damage to the reef but eventually decided to chop it into pieces. – Alexis Romero