Explain why US leads Tubbataha probe, P-Noy told

MANILA, Philippines - A member of a fact-finding mission in Tubbataha Reef on Friday called on President Benigno Aquino III to explain to Filipinos why the US government has taken charge of the investigation on the January 17 grounding of USS Guardian.

"The US government should be the subject of investigation and the political object of criminal cases which the Philippine state should file against officials, crew members of the American minesweeper and the US government," said Fernando Hicap, of Anakpawis partylist, one of the main organizers of fact-finding mission in Palawan.

On Thursday, the US government announced it would invite officials of the Philippine Navy and Philippine Coast Guard to participate in the US-led probe on the grounding of the warship USS Guardian in Tubbataha Reef.

Lt. Col. Jason Chamness, deputy chief of the Joint US Military Assistance Group (JUSMAG), said the Philippine officials would be invited to the JUSMAG headquarters in Japan.

Chamness said the American investigators would bring Philippine officials  to Japan and brief them on the status of the investigation undertaken by the US authorities on the USS Guardian grounding in Tubbataha Reef Park.

Pamalakaya vice chairperson Salvador France said an independent investigation should be undertaken, asserting that the US has no legal, moral and political right to carry out an objective probe of the January 17 Tubbataha incident.

"We will not subscribe to any Washington fabricated report on Tubbataha that would eventually exonerate imperial America from its crimes against the people and the environment,"France said.

The fact-finding mission last March 11 to 14 recommended the filing of criminal and other appropriate charges against officials and 79 crew members of USS Guardian and officials of the Aquino administration regarding the environmental disaster in Tubbataha. - Dennis Carcamo