THE P87-million compensation from the US government for the damage of the Tubbataha Reef, where the minesweeper USS Guardian ran aground in January last year, is not enough, a militant group said.
Bagong Alyansang Makabayan Secretary-General Renato Reyes said the fine for the US should be 12 times the initial estimate of the Philippine government.
In a statement, Reyes said: “Comparing valuations in the 2009 grounding of the USS Port Royal in Hawaii, the petitioners peg just and reasonable compensation for the damage to Tubbataha between $16.8 million and $27 million, which is still bigger than the $2 million or P87 million that we are getting.”
He added: “Five years ago under similar circumstances, the US Navy paid the state of Hawaii a total of $15 million for restoration and settlement, for damage to an Oahu reef; which, while larger than Tubbataha, has not been identified as a World Heritage Site. In our petition, we cited that Tubbataha’s biodiversity concentration is 2.3 times more than that of the Hawaii reef.”
Reyes also said that aside from fines, US Navy personnel responsible for the damage should be prosecuted under Philippine laws.
He said the US Navy officers involved are not immune from any form of accountability as the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) has no environmental guidelines.
“Our investigators could not even conduct face-to-face interviews with the officers responsible for the grounding of the ship. We could not even prevent the crew from leaving Philippine waters so that they could face a proper investigation,” he said.
“More important, the VFA allows an unlimited number of US vessels to enter the Philippines and conduct an unspecified range of activities. This becomes worse under Edca [Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement] because these vessels will have their own bases in the country,” he added.
On Friday Foreign Secretary Albert F. del Rosario announced that the US has agreed to pay P87 million for the damage of the Tubbataha Reef, a biodiversity-rich area.
“I received correspondence just yesterday [Thursday] that the US has agreed to pay the compensation,” del Rosario said, in reponse to Sen. Loren Legarda’s question if the US government had paid the fine for the destruction of the reefs.
Legarda asked the question at the Senate hearing on the proposed Department of Foreign Affairs budget for 2015.
The Tubbataha Management Office (TMO) welcomed the news.
TMO Park Manager Angelique Songco said the amount would cover both the P58.4-million fine imposed by the government for the restoration of the marine park and the expenses of the Coast Guard during the salvage operations.
The Coast Guard is asking for P28 million for the expenses it incurred during the salvage operations, Songco said. It took at least 10 weeks of salvage operations to haul away pieces of the USS Guardian.
Tubbataha is a World Heritage Site in Palawan, and is one of the top scuba-diving destinations globally.
Earlier this year park management said the reefs have yet to fully recover from the damage. A long wait is expected before the once productive area again flourishes.