THE Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) has described the direct damage of the marooned USS Guardian on Tubbataha Reef as “negligible” but noted that the long-term effect on the fish habitat may be bigger.
Lawyer Asis Perez, BFAR director, said the direct damage on the reef has been set at 1,000 square meters, or 10 percent of 1 hectare of the World Heritage Site that covers 97,000 hectares.
However, Perez qualified that the direct damage may pale in comparison to the “long-term effects of the fish species that thrive on the corals.”
Perez’s description of the impact of the USS Guardian’s mistaken navigational chart pales in comparison to the criticisms lodged by the fishermen’s alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya), which likened it to a “disaster” that would impact heavily on the habitat of 1,500 species of fish that spawn on the corals.
Moreover, claimed Pamalakaya, it takes more than 250 years for a coral to grow a meter long.
The grounding of the minesweeper will have an impact on the reproduction of fish in the reef and affect the catch of fishermen in Sulu Sea and West Philippine Sea, the group added.
On the other hand, Party-list Reps. Teodoro Casiño of Bayan Muna and Raymond Palatino of Kabataan filed a resolution on Monday to urge the House of Representatives to condemn the refusal of the crew of the US warship to recognize Philippine authority when the ship got stuck in the Tubbataha Reef National Park.
Casiño and Palatino filed House Resolution 3012 the other day and called on the government to halt all port calls, docking of warships and military exercises by US forces in the Philippines.
“This incident simply highlights how destructive—rather than protective—our country’s relationship with the US is. The Filipino people must take this as a cue. It is time that we rise against the bastardization of our national sovereignty,” Palatino said.
The two legislators said the ship illegally entered Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park in Sulu Sea, insisting that what happened was “rest and recreation gone wrong.”
The USS Guardian is still sitting on the reef 80 kilometers southwest of Palawan after slicing precious corals in the area and violating the environmental laws of the republic.
“Tubbataha is one of the best-protected and infamous natural resource of our country, and its haphazard destruction is an affront not just to the country’s biodiversity but also to our sovereignty. We are not buying the US Navy’s claim that the incident was a result of misnavigation: How could a minesweeper that has the capacity to detect Ping-Pong ball-sized mines under the sea not detect that it’s running head-on to a protected coral reef park?” Palatino asked.
Reports from the Tubbataha Management Office also revealed that the US Navy barred park rangers from approaching the stranded warship after ignoring their warnings that the vessel was nearing the reef. The ship captain reportedly refused to communicate with the rangers.
The rangers also noticed the US sailors manning their battle stations as they approached the ship.
Owing to this belligerent posture, the park rangers filed an incident report to inform authorities about the incident.
“Not only did the US Navy illegally enter a protected area, it also refused to communicate with Philippine authorities early into the incident. This pompous act reeks of brazen disrespect to our laws and undermines our sovereignty,” Palatino said.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.