No haggling over reef fine–Abaya
By TJ Burgonio
The penalty for the damage caused to the Tubbataha Reefs by a US Navy minesweeper is non-negotiable, Transportation Secretary Joseph E.A. Abaya said Sunday.
The penalty for the damage caused to the Tubbataha Reefs by a US Navy minesweeper is non-negotiable, Transportation Secretary Joseph E.A. Abaya said Sunday.
An earlier plan to drag the stuck US minesweeper Guardian off the reefs of Tubbataha, where it has been stuck for eight days, was ruled out on Thursday and authorities decided to lift the vessel onto a barge.
A team of marine scientists and divers from the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) left for the Tubbataha Reefs Thursday to assess the damage caused by the grounding of a US warship there a week ago.
The USS Guardian has damaged “more or less 1,000 square meters” of the Tubbataha Reefs in the Sulu Sea, the spokesperson of the Philippine Coast Guard told the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
President Aquino on Tuesday said the United States has to explain how and why its ship had run aground in a protected area like the Tubbataha Reefs but the “first priority” was to remove the USS Guardian and contain the damage it made in the world heritage site.
The Philippines has fined the US Navy for “unauthorized entry” after an American minesweeper went aground on Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park in the Sulu Sea.
President Aquino has ordered authorities to vet the US Navy’s plan to salvage a minesweeper stuck in the Tubbataha Reefs every step of the way to ensure “minimal damage” to the reefs, officials said Monday.
The Tubbataha Reefs are atoll coral reefs located 157 kilometers southeast of Puerto Princesa City in Palawan.
A US Navy warship that ran aground on the Tubbataha Reefs Thursday did not coordinate with local authorities about its passage, something that the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) said was contrary to the protocol among foreign and local ships crossing the waters near the World Heritage Site in the Sulu Sea.
