US prepared to pay for Tubbataha damage, says Ambassador Goldberg

From InterAksyon (Sep 16): US prepared to pay for Tubbataha damage, says Ambassador Goldberg

The United States will soon compensate the Philippine government for the damages caused by a US Navy vessel when it ran aground at the World Heritage Site of Tubbataha Reef in January 2013, US Ambassador to the Philippines Philip Goldberg said.

At the 5th Kapihan sa Embahada on Monday, Goldberg said the US government is at the "last phase" of reviewing the claim for damages caused by the USS Guardian on 2,300 square meters of the reef January 17 last year.

"We’re going to the last phase of the review. Whenever something like this happens it requires legal and other reviews. And I am convinced that very soon we’ll have an announcement to make on it," said the top US diplomat in the country when asked about it.

Goldberg noted that the US government has addressed the issue by apologizing for the incident and cooperating with the Philippine government in investigating the incident.

Also, he said, people responsible for the incident have been "reprimanded."
"We also took enormous care and with great expense in removing the vessel so that it was probably less than it might have damaged," he said.

"We felt we did go to great lengths to make sure that was the case," he added.

Until recently, the ambassador said the US government has waited for the Philippines to file its claim for damages to the reef.

Such a claim must undergo "legal and other review" before a final decision on the compensation can be made.

The Philippines filed a claim under the US Foreign Claims Act (FCA), which was enacted in 1942 to provide compensation for inhabitants of foreign countries for personal injury, death, or property damage because of noncombatant activities by US military personnel overseas.

According to Lt. Anthony Flavo, spokesperson of the US Pacific Fleet in Hawaii, the FCA “authorizes the filing, investigation, processing, and settling of foreign claims. The purpose of the act is to promote and maintain friendly relations through the prompt settlement of meritorious claims in foreign countries.”

The claim must be made by the Philippine government within two years of the incident, the US Navy official said. A claim must comprise of: (1) time, date, place, and nature of the incident; (2) nature and extent of any injury, loss, or damage; and (3) request for compensation in a definite amount, in the local currency.

After the claim is submitted to the US government, it will then be forwarded to the Claims and Tort Litigation (Code 15) of the US Navy Judge Advocate General.

Earlier reports indicated that the US government was not willing to pay in cash but in kind, an aircraft used during the war in Afghanistan.
Flavo denied this.

The USS Guardian was stuck in the reef for two months and was removed early April 2013.

It was on its way to Indonesia through the Sulu Sea when the incident happened. US officials denied that the Navy was there to scuba-dive.
The two-month grounding damaged about 2,300 square meters of the reef, which marine experts say will take decades to recover.

The US Navy spent P1 billion to remove the USS Guardian from the reef, but the Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park Act of 2009 requires them to pay about P12,000 per square meter of damaged reef and another P12,000 per square meter for the rehabilitation, for a total of about P58 million or about $1.4 million.

http://www.interaksyon.com/article/95493/us-prepared-to-pay-for-tubbataha-damage-says-ambassador-goldberg