INTRUDER The USS Guardian, a US Navy minesweeper, is still stuck after running aground Tubbataha Reefs, a Unesco World Heritage Site in Sulu Sea, in this Jan. 17 photo released by the Armed Forces of the Philippines Western Command. AP
The US Navy minesweeper that ran aground
on a coral reef remained stuck at the Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park for the
second day on Friday but most of the US sailors had left the ship for safety
reasons after initial efforts to free the vessel
failed, the US Navy’s 7th Fleet said in a statement on Friday. It said 72 of the 79 crew of the USS
Guardian were transferred to a military support vessel by small boat. A small
team, including the commanding and executive officers, would remain on board to
try to extricate the ship with as little damage to environment as possible, the
statement said. How the US warship managed to enter the
marine sanctuary puzzles the Philippine Navy.
Commodore Joseph Peña of the Naval Forces
West said there are designated sea-lanes where ships could sail, which was
outside and “far” from the Tubbataha Reef. “We’re asking the same question, too. How
did the US ship get in there?” Peña said.
The US Navy also said that initial efforts
to free the Guardian during high tide were not successful. Philippine
officials said the weather yesterday was choppy with strong winds and rough
seas. The ship ran aground Thursday while in
transit through the marine park, a coral sanctuary in the Sulu Sea, 640
kilometers southwest of Manila. There were no injuries or oil leaks, and
Philippine authorities were trying to evaluate damage to the protected coral
reef, designated by Unesco as a World Heritage Site in 1992. The USS Guardian, a 68-meter long
minesweeper, reportedly hit the upper side of the South Atoll, one of the two
main atolls comprising the Tubbataha Reefs, at dawn of Thursday.
Park
rangers ignored
The World Wide Fund for Nature Philippines
(WWF) said that according to an initial visual inspection, the 68-meter-long,
1,300-ton Guardian damaged at least 10 meters of the reef. Aerial photographs
provided by the Philippine military showed the ship’s bow sitting atop corals in
shallow turquoise waters. The stern was floating in the deep blue waters.
The US Navy said the cause of the
grounding, which took place around 2 a.m. Thursday, was under investigation.
The US 7th Fleet claimed it had formally
notified the Philippine government of the accident but has apparently bypassed
the small detachment of park rangers guarding the marine park. “They (US authorities) have not
communicated with us so far,” said Angelique Songco, head of the government’s
Protected Area Management Board that supervises the marine park.
Tubbataha to file protest
Songco said the marine park’s management
would file a formal protest with the US government over the behavior of the
Guardian’s commander who prevented park rangers from approaching the vessel.
She said that park rangers were not
allowed to board the ship for inspection and were told to contact the US Embassy
in Manila. Their radio calls to the ship were ignored, she said. “The ship’s commander ordered a general
alert and deployed personnel into battle position when our rangers tried to
approach their ship to assess the situation, forcing them to back off,” she said
in a phone interview. “They were well inside the marine park,
stuck in the North Atoll of Tubbataha, and we were being prevented from coming
close,” she said.
She said it was unclear how much of the
reef was damaged. She said the government imposes a fine of about $300 per
square meter (yard) of damaged coral. In 2005, the environmental group
Greenpeace was fined almost $7,000 after its flagship struck a reef in the same
area. Songco said they could not yet estimate
the extent of the coral damage done by the US vessel but expressed concern that
the area that got hit was abundant with marine life. “We don’t know yet how much damage has
been done. We can only wait till they leave before we take a look at the area,”
she said.
Maj. Oliver Banaria, spokesperson for the
Armed Forces of the Philippines, said the US Navy did not request assistance
from the Philippines. The Philippine Navy has deployed a ship to
the area to “provide assistance” to the stricken vessel but it said it would be
mainly the US Navy that would pull the Guardian out of the reef. “It will need a special ship to pull it
out,” said Peña.
A second US vessel, identified by park
authorities as the USS Champion, arrived early Friday, apparently to help get
the USS Guardian off the reef. “We don’t want to speculate what it’s
going to do there … It was probably commissioned by the US,” Banaria said. “Our (Navy) would be on standby because
these are still our territorial waters and we would be providing information to
our higher headquarters. We would be there for monitoring and to provide any
help or assistance if they (US) ask for it,” he said.
US Navy ships have stepped up visits to
Philippine ports for refueling, rest and recreation, plus joint military exercises as a result
of a redeployment of US forces in the Asia-Pacific region. The Philippines, a US defense treaty ally,
has been entangled in a territorial dispute with China in the West
Philippine Sea (South China Sea).
Raul Hernandez, spokesperson of the
Department of Foreign Affairs, said in a statement: “Relevant agencies of the
Philippine government will conduct their own investigation, assess the impact of
the incident on the reef, and recommend any and all actions that must be taken.”
He said Gen. Edilberto Adan, executive
director of the commission on the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) was “in touch
with the Tubbataha Management Office as well as the US Embassy.”
“We do not want to rely on the
information [of the US Embassy) alone, we would need to conduct our own research
and our investigation to find out what really happened. [Philippine officials]
will determine the legal violation connected with the incident,” he said.
Palace weighs words
Malacañang on Friday confirmed that the US
minesweeper had come from Subic Bay for a “regular port call,” but declined to
be drawn into a discussion this early on the subject of seeking damages from
Washington. “We don’t want to make any speculations
yet at this point. We want to proceed where everything has been thoroughly
established before we make any further comment on this matter,” said deputy
presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte. Valte stressed that the government was
concerned about the possible damage to the reef by the US ship.
“But for now our concern is to make sure
that there is very minimal damage. The Department of Foreign Affairs, Department
of National Defense and other agencies are coordinating with the US embassy here
in Manila just to make sure that it (ship) is extracted the soonest possible
time … to avoid further injury to one of our national treasures,” she said. She also tried to discourage the media
from treating the incident as an offshoot of the increased US presence in the
country following the new US “pivot policy” to the Asian region. “Perhaps at this point (it is) not healthy
to speculate,” she said.
“The ship was en route from Subic for a
regular port call. We imagine that the other agencies will be launching their
own investigation on how and why the ship ended up running aground,” she said.
Peña said the Navy had patrolled the area
of the Tubbataha Reef last week to make sure that no ship would be crossing the
waters of the marine sanctuary. But just as the Philippine ship returned
to shore to replenish its supplies, the USS Guardian had struck the coral reef.
Explanation demanded
Sen. Francis Pangilinan, a member of
President Aquino’s Liberal Party, called on the DFA to demand a satisfactory
explanation from the US government over the reported incursions into Philippine
territory of US military forces over the past couple of weeks. “First, it was a US drone. Now, it’s a
minesweeper,” Pangilinan said in a statement. “Friends and allies must exercise good
faith by coming clean,” he added. Pangilinan finds the US government
“sketchy in providing answers in both incidents.” Sen. Loren Legarda, chair of the Senate
committee on foreign relations, expressed “extreme concern” over the damage to
the Tubbataha Reef. She said those who caused the incident
should be made accountable.
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