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The Philippines: This Week in Asia Politics

"US-Philippines ties enter 鈥榤ore mature鈥� phase with planned fuel depot"

The facility in Davao signals that defence ties are now focusing on sustainment, endurance and operational continuity, analysts say

[Photo caption: Soldiers fire a howitzer during the annual joint 鈥淏alikatan鈥� military exercises between the US and Philippine troops in Aparri, Cagayan province, in May 2025. Photo: Reuters]

By Jeoffrey Maitem聽 SCMP Published: 7:30pm, 14 Apr 2026

The United States is planning a fuel depot in the southern Philippines to support humanitarian and maritime security missions for its long-time ally in Asia, as part of a growing network of forward-based refuelling hubs in the Western Pacific.

Located far from the flashpoint reefs at the centre of Manila鈥檚 maritime dispute with Beijing in the South China Sea, the depot marks what one observer called a 鈥渕ore mature and more serious stage鈥� in the US-Philippine alliance: a shift from base access and drills towards the grinding business of keeping forces fuelled, dispersed and in the field for the long haul.

The US Defence Logistics Agency published a solicitation on March 31, inviting US-based contractors to bid for a Defence Fuel Support Point along the western coast of the Davao Gulf, including Davao City, Davao del Sur and Malalag Bay.

According to a 15-page contract brief, the facility would hold about 977,000 barrels of US government-owned fuel for warships and aircraft over a four-year period, split between naval distillate F-76, used by surface vessels, and JP-5, a high-flashpoint jet fuel designed for use aboard aircraft carriers.

Bids will be accepted until June 29 and the project is slated for completion by 2028.

The Davao site will join a chain of forward refuelling hubs the US is building across the Western Pacific, alongside planned facilities in Darwin, Australia and Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea.

Rear Admiral Roy Vincent Trinidad, a Philippine Navy spokesman, welcomed the plan but said details would have to wait until it was finalised.

He brushed off suggestions that the depot could become a target, arguing it would act as a deterrent instead.

鈥淭he greater risk is to have no deterrence at all,鈥� he told reporters on Friday.

[Photo caption: "A US Marine Air Defence Integrated System fires at a drone during a live-fire joint Philippines-US military exercise in Zambales province, northern Philippines, in April 2025." Photo: AP]

Arnaud Leveau, a geopolitics professor at Paris Dauphine University, said Washington鈥檚 decision to site the hub in Davao, rather than closer to the South China Sea, reflected a preference for strategic depth over immediate proximity.

A site around Subic or Palawan would be more directly useful tactically, he said, but also more exposed in a crisis.

Davao, by contrast, offered a location that remained connected to operational theatres while being farther from the most obvious pressure points and better sheltered from immediate disruption.

There was also a geographic and logistical logic at work, Leveau said. Davao sits near the mouth of the Sulu and Celebes seas, two of the main sea lanes along the southern edge of the Philippines, with the wider Davao region being developed as Mindanao鈥檚 main commercial logistics gateway.

鈥淚n other words, this is not simply a military location. It is a node that already makes sense in commercial and transport terms,鈥� Leveau told This Week in Asia.

鈥淲e are looking at a distributed sustainment architecture, designed to be usable in peacetime, credible in crisis and less escalatory in appearance than a fuel hub placed directly on the South China Sea front line.鈥�

Asked what that said about the US-Philippine logistics set-up, Leveau said it suggested the alliance was moving from a model centred mainly on access and exercises to one built around sustainment, endurance and operational continuity.

鈥淭he real issue is not only where forces can deploy, but whether they can be refuelled, dispersed, maintained and kept in the field over time. That is a more mature and more serious stage of alliance-building,鈥� Leveau said.

Washington and Manila had already expanded the network of bases accessible to US forces under the 2014 Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) to nine sites, Leveau noted, with the US steadily pouring money into infrastructure and pre-positioned supplies. He said the Davao project fit that trend despite not being a designated EDCA site.

[Photo caption: "Philippine and US aircraft fly during a joint patrol and training over the South China Sea in February 2025." Photo: Philippine Air Force via AP]

Ease strain on air assets

Defence analyst Justin Kyle Malarayap said Manila鈥檚 willingness to host the fuel facility was a clear statement that it intended to be proactive in sustaining humanitarian and military operations across the archipelago.

The depot, he said, would ease strain on air assets in southern Philippines, support operations in the Visayas and boost response capabilities to security challenges in Mindanao.

It could also lay the groundwork for future joint training between Manila and its allies, he added.

鈥淭his development highlights the commitment of the government in ensuring that critical logistics chains are sustained during disasters and security crises. We鈥檝e often seen that during major natural calamities the [Philippine military] has been overwhelmed by logistical challenges when responding to remote areas where roads are damaged or critical river crossings are flooded,鈥� he said.

鈥淚n a conflict scenario, these challenges are greatly exacerbated due to the fact that modern warfare actively seeks the rapid disruption of adversarial logistics to influence strategic operations. This is one of the reasons why we鈥檝e seen a large investment from the Philippine Air Force to improve its logistical assets.鈥�

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Muhammad Faizal Bin Abdul Rahman, a research fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, said the Davao location could reduce the odds of the site being targeted by Chinese missiles or drones in any maritime clash.

Faizal told This Week in Asia that the war against Iran showed overseas US military facilities were not impervious to attack by powerful adversaries, a fact allies hosting American forces could not ignore.

Davao, he said, could be strategically suitable precisely because it might serve US forces鈥� needs in both the South China Sea and the wider Western Pacific.

鈥淭here is a growing concern that President [Donald] Trump鈥檚 focus on the Middle East might increasingly distract the US military from its security commitments to its Indo-Pacific allies. A logistics facility, such as a fuel hub, could help assuage this concern to some extent,鈥� Faizal said.

According to Faizal, the advantage for Manila is that a fuel hub in the Philippines would give Washington stronger incentives to maintain its presence, even when its forces are overstretched, because US forces rely on a global logistics network to project power.

鈥淎lthough the US is currently preoccupied with attacking Iran and supporting Israel鈥檚 war efforts, it still needs to implement its 2026 National Defence Strategy that calls for erecting a balance of military power in the Indo-Pacific that would contain China,鈥� Faizal said.

鈥淒eployment of troops and armaments constitutes the projection of military power, but logistics support is the backbone of sustainable military power.鈥�

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