MANILA - The United States Embassy on Wednesday denied reports that a US state department deputy assistant secretary has been named as the next American envoy to the Philippines.

In a statement, US Embassy's Trude Raizen belied reports that Mina Chang would replace current envoy Sung Kim.

"We’ve seen this claim. It is not true," Raizen said.

The official said Chang was last nominated as an official of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and that nomination remains pending.

"In September 2018, the White House announced the President’s intent to nominate Mina Chang to be an Assistant Administrator of the US Agency for International Development for the Bureau of Asia," the statement read.

"The nomination was referred to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in January 2019. There have been no additional White House announcements regarding her nomination to the USAID position," it said.

The Philippine Star and political news website Politiko had reported that Chang was going to be America's next representative in the Philippines.

According to the US State Department website, Harvard-educated Chang became Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations in April.

It described Chang as having "extensive on the ground experience in conflict areas such as in Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Nigeria, and the Philippines."