US pressed to pay for damage on Tubbataha Reef

MANILA, Philippines - Visiting US President Barack Obama was asked yesterday to pay the damages that a US Navy minesweeper had inflicted on the protected Tubbataha Reef National Park last year.

In a statement, Kabataan Rep. Terry Ridon said more than a year has passed since the USS Guardian ran aground at Tubbataha.

“Yet the US government has not paid even a single penny for damages, and not even a single US soldier or military officer has been made accountable for the incident,” he said.

“If Mr. Obama has even a speck of respect left for the Filipino people, he should immediately order the payment of damages for the Tubbataha fiasco. Otherwise, his visit to the country will be nothing but an insincere political show.”

On Jan. 17, 2013 the Guardian ran aground on Tubbataha Reef, damaging more than 2,345 square meters of coral formations in Tubbataha’s south section.

Environmentalists estimate that it would take more than 250 years for the damaged corals to regrow.

Various legal impediments, including the delay in the Supreme Court’s ruling on petitions regarding the Tubbataha grounding, have “virtually halted” all efforts for rehabilitation of the damaged reef, Ridon said.

The government was asked to demand a fine somewhere between $16.8 million and $27 million, a valuation close to the fines paid in the 2009 grounding of USS Port Royal in Hawaii.