Philippines: Divers begin assessment of Tubbataha damage

Monday, Apr 01, 2013

Manila: Divers of a government-run management group will start to determine the area that was damaged by a US Navy ship that ran aground on a protected marine park in the southwestern Philippines in early February.

Controversy was expected to begin with militant groups rejecting the 95 million pesos (Dh8.5 million) compensation package that the US reportedly offered for the damage at the UN-listed World Heritage site, a local paper said.

Divers of the Tubbataha Management Office (TMO), which handles operations of the Tubbataha Reef, will assess the damage on the Tubbataha Reef, Lieutenant Commander Armand Balilo, Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) spokesman told the Inquirer.

The PCG divers are no longer participating in the assessment project, although the PCG will deploy ships and rubber boats at the Sulu Sea, Balilo said.

At the same time, the United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) World Heritage proposed to send experts to help assess the destruction at the Tubbataha Reef.

The assessment was scheduled on April 8, TMO superintendent Angelique Songco also told the Inquirer, but did not add if Unesco experts would help fast-track the work of the TMO divers.

Meanwhile, the US Navy also called for a confidential discussion of the issue with the department of foreign affairs, not with the TMO, resulting in angry reactions from different sources, the Inquirer said.

Discussions must be done with the TMO and penalties must be paid to the TMO, Jose Ma Lorenzo Tan, executive officer of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), insisted on his social media site.

This was a provision of the law that created the Tubbetaha Reef as a protected area, the Environmental Legal Assistance Centre (ELAC) explained in a statement.

Pamalakaya, a militant group of fishermen, also reject the 95 million peso compensation package that the US offered.

“The 95 million peso offer for compensation for the Tubbataha destruction and 4.1 million pesos for rehabilitation are dime-a-dozen offers compared to the extent of the environmental holocaust spurred by the grounding of USS Guardian to the Unesco declared national treasure,” Pamalakaya said in a statement.

Meanwhile, US and Philippine divers continued a clean-up operation in the Sulu Sea, hoping it will be completed soon.

All parts of the dismantled 68-metre USS Guardian were taken out of the reef and brought to a US-base in Sasebo, Japan on Saturday.

Earlier, PCG divers reported that the USS Guardian damaged 1,500 to 1,600 square metres of the Tubbataha Reef.

The US Navy minesweeper got stuck on the reef on January 17. Salvage operations began on February 22.

By Barbara ?Mae Dacanay ?Bureau Chief