MANILA, Philippines—The Supreme Court has issued a “writ of kalikasan” over the Tubbataha Reef that directs the Court of Appeals to determine whether the US Navy is criminally and administratively liable for the massive coral destruction in the reef by the grounding of the USS Guardian last Jan. 17. Unconfirmed reports last night said [...]
Let the Philippine justice system take its course in the litigation of the Chinese fishermen whose boat got stuck on Tubbataha Reef last week, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) has told Chinese Embassy officials in Manila.
The 12 Chinese nationals whose boat got stuck in the Tubbataha Reefs on Monday night were slapped with charges of poaching and other violations of the marine park’s rules.
As salvage operations on the grounded US minesweeper in Tubbataha Reef in the Sulu Sea came to a close, a Chinese fishing vessel was reported to have struck the north reef close to midnight Monday.
The US Navy has turned over digital navigation maps and other important documents to Philippine investigators who are looking into the grounding of the minesweeper USS Guardian on Tubbataha Reef on Jan. 17.
The US Navy is not yet off the hook in the Tubbataha Reef, as Sen. Loren Legarda will not allow it to sail away even after it pays $1.4 million for the damage the grounding of the USS Guardian has caused to the protected marine park in the Sulu Sea.
As it awaits the assessment dives that would determine the extent of the damage to Tubbataha Reef, the Philippine government is sending a Coast Guard team to Japan to resume its investigation into the grounding of the USS Guardian on the atoll, government officials said yesterday.
Tubbataha Reef Management Office divers, not their counterparts from the Philippine Coast Guard, will make the “final assessment” of the damage left by the USS Guardian on the Tubbataha Reef in the Sulu Sea, the PCG spokesman told the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
The removal of the minesweeper USS Guardian that got stuck in Tubbataha Reefs some two months ago was completed Saturday, two weeks ahead of date estimates initially made by both Philippine and US authorities.
The United States government has invited Philippine officials to Japan for a briefing on the investigation into the grounding of the USS Guardian in Tubbataha Reef, a World Heritage site, in January.
Bad weather has forced a US Navy-contracted salvage team to suspend the dismantling of the USS Guardian, the minesweeper that has been grounded since Jan. 17 at the Tubbataha Reefs in the Sulu Sea, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) said yesterday.
The removal of the USS Guardian from the Tubbataha Reef in the Sulu Sea may not be completed by March 23 as planned, the Philippine Coast Guard said.
