ZAMBOANGA CITY—US Ambassador Kristie Kenney categorically declared on Thursday that her country has no plans to establish military bases in the Philippines.

“We’re not building [military] bases in the Philippines. We don’t have any plans to have bases, and we don’t need to have bases here,” Kenney said in an interview.

Kenney made the statement in reaction to reports that the US is building military bases in General Santos City, Mactan in Cebu, Subic in Olongapo and Clark Field in Pampanga.

Kenney said, “Filipino troops are doing a great job in the fight against terror, and we’re delighted to be here as guests.”

She stressed that the presence of US forces in the country is at the invitation of the government.

“I don’t know exactly how many they are [US troops], but whenever the Philippine military asks for whatever they need, not one more than that [is sent],” she said.

An undetermined number of US troops had been stationed in this city since 2001, when the Joint RP-US Exercise Balikatan 02-1 was launched.

The US troops have trained local forces on counterterrorism tactics and other military arts.

Kenney, said US bases in the Philippines were shut down in the early 1990s and “we are very happy with the wonderful military relationship we have here right now.”

Kenney, along with some ranking US military and embassy officials, on Thursday morning flew to this city and inaugurated a United States Assistance for International Development Computer Literacy and Internet Connection (CLIC) at the Southern City Colleges high- school department.

After the CLIC inauguration, Kenney and her entourage proceeded to the Armed Forces Western Mindanao Command headquarters and joined the US troops in the celebration of Thanksgiving Day.

It was her second time to celebrate Thanksgiving Day in this city. 

DISASTER-mitigation teams have started evacuating 10,000 families comprising of 50,000 people from high-risk areas in Albay to minimize, if not prevent, casualties from Typhoon Mina.

WITH the suspects in the bombing of the House of Representatives arrested and charged in court and the motive clearly established by investigators, the police are now training their sight on the mastermind or masterminds.

THE Senate on Wednesday night passed on second reading the Personal Equity and Retirement Account (Pera) Bill which seeks to “create a more dependable and stable pension that will ensure financial security during retirement.”

ZAMBOANGA CITY—US Ambassador Kristie Kenney categorically declared on Thursday that her country has no plans to establish military bases in the Philippines.

THE  University of the Philippines and the Ateneo de Manila University made it to the list of top 500 universities of the world in the 2007 Times Higher-QS World University Rankings.