Greenpeace apologizes to RP, Mother Nature

Greenpeace apologized yesterday to the Philippines and Mother Nature for the damage caused by its flagship Rainbow Warrior II on a world heritage site coral reef that the environmental campaigners were supposed to protect.

The group was fined P384,000 earlier this week but blamed what it described as inaccurate navigational charts provided by the Philippine government after the 180-foot schooner ran aground at the Tubbataha Reef Marine Park on Monday.

The ship caused damage on an area of some 1,700 square feet of coral, authorities said.

Greenpeace offered a belated and unconditional apology after the ship sailed into the port of Manila to continue an island-hopping tour across the Asia-Pacific to promote climate change awareness.

"Yes, we admit we are human too. We apologize that this thing happened," Greenpeace Southeast Asia campaign manager Von Hernandez told a news conference.

He said it was Greenpeace’s understanding that "that these things happen quite frequently" at Tubbataha, a spectacular 32,000-hectare coral formation in the Sulu Sea that is listed by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization as a world heritage site.

By paying the fine and making an act of contrition, "we hope we have set a positive example as far as this thing is concerned," Hernandez said.

Originally built in Britain in 1957 as a steam-powered fishing vessel, the Rainbow Warrior II replaced its namesake, which was sunk by French agents in 1985 in Auckland harbor on its way to block a French nuclear test in the South Pacific.

One crew member drowned and two French secret service agents were later jailed after pleading guilty to charges of manslaughter and willful damage. — AFP