The USS Guardian is finally out of Tubbataha Reef. After running aground, due to “erroneous navigational chartsâ€, and being cut up and lifted out of the UNESCO heritage site, it is finally out. The damage has been assessed, and a fine of $1.4 million has been slapped on the US Navy, based on the actual area that was damaged. According to the Tubbataha Management Office (TMO), not a penny more will be collected from them, even in the face of criticism that the amount is nothing but a slap on the wrist! Well, that's for the agencies to sort things out. The important thing is the reef is free once more from damage. Wrong.
Just as you would have it, a Chinese fishing vessel with 12 crew members, most probably fishermen, runs aground on the northern portion of the reef! The 12 crew members have been taken into custody and brought to Palawan for further investigation. The ship remains aground and is being guarded by the Philippine Navy, in case high tide creeps in and re-floats the ship. Most likely, this vessel has entered the country illegally to fish and collect whatever they can and bring back to China.
What incenses me is where they were caught. Tubbataha Reef is well inside the territorial waters of the country, and not some disputed area of the ocean like Scarborough Shoal or the Spratly Islands! Is China going to say that the reason the fishing was there was because they own the Sulu Sea? I am definitely not buying the “our-navigational-charts-were-wrong†explanation! These are poachers, clear and simple, with the intention of raiding our oceans for its treasures! And to do it where they got caught is flat out arrogance, with no respect for the sovereignty of the Philippines! It's a good thing the Tubbataha Reef is like an aquatic Venus flytrap, preying on wayward ships where it rewards itself with the fines imposed on them! If found to be guilty, these poachers must be punished with imprisonment, their vessel impounded and the company that owns it fined!
But what this incident has highlighted is the sorry state of our Navy and Coast Guard. These are the agencies tasked with keeping watch over the seas and the country's more than seven thousand islands! It is apparent that illegal vessels can and do slip into our waters to poach and raid our natural resources. This vessel was caught, but there may have been numerous others before it that have successfully entered and exited our waters! They just totally forgot about the Reef!
This should be a wake-up call for the government. While we are adamant in defending disputed waters and islands, we may have overlooked and become complacent of the territories that are already ours. That is also one reason why members of the “royal army†were able to sail to Sabah without any resistance. If only they were intercepted, we would not have a Sabah problem right now. We need the boats, the ships, the aircraft, the personnel, the equipment to safely guard and protect that which is ours. Otherwise, more of these arrogant, disrespectful fishermen will come and go as they please.