Salvage operations on the USS Guardian, as seen in file photo from the US Pacific Fleet Flickr account.
Third-party groups seeking to mount on Sunday a fact-finding mission to Tubbataha Reef, where a US Navy minesweeper remains stuck amid a difficult operation to dismantle and extract it, have denounced an alleged off-limits policy imposed by the Philippine Coast Guard.
Organizers and participants of the four-day Sovereignty and Environmental Mission said their groups are simply after the real score on the grounding of the USS Guardian on the UNESCO declared World Heritage site.
"We just want the truth. What is wrong with that? But the Coast Guard are threatening to intercept us if we get near Tubbataha for flimsy and highly questionable reasons.
They reminded Philippine authorities “that we are not from the USS Guardian nor do we belong to any American military war [unit] therefore, we are not destroyers of corals and biodiversity. We just want to know the real score and we have a score to settle with the extrajudicial killers of Tubbataha reef.”
Fernando Hicap, vice chairperson of Anakpawis party list and one of the organizers of the mission in Palawan, issued the statement after PCG-Palawan commander Enrico Efren Evangelista said members of the fact-finding team will be intercepted once they get near Tubbataha, where salvaging of the American minesweeper is going on.
Hicap also chairs the Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya), the main organizer of the mission.
The PCG-Palawan cited an existing 500 meter-radius exclusive safety zone around the USS Guardian because of the salvaging operations. It is a no-sail zone and the PCG maintained it would be dangerous for mission participants to enter this area because there are crane movements and there could be an accident.
If that is the case, said Hicap, “then the PCG should provide us all the necessary support to get near Tubbataha. As taxpayers and as one of the affected and concerned sectors, we deserve assistance or support and not threats from the coast guard.”
He described the off-limits policy as a “wholesale violation of our sovereigns rights as Filipinos and direct infringement on our constitutional rights to information.”
Anakpawis party-list and Pamalakaya will be joined by a team of marine and environmental experts from Earth Island Philippines, the Iloilo-based Fisheries Marine and Environmental Research Institute (FMERI), Central Visayas Fisherfolk Development Center (FIDEC), marine experts from the University of the Philippines (UP), the umbrella group Bagong Alyasang Makabayan-Southern Tagalog (Bayan-ST), the para-legal group Sentro Para Sa Tunay na Repormang Agraryo (Sentra), Pamalakaya-Palawan chapter, Save Tubbataha Movement, Junk VFA Movement and the International Fisherfolk and fishWorkers Coalition (IFWC).
Pamalakaya vice chairperson Salvador France insisted that the mission only wants to have more details beyond the information fed to the Filipino public from the US Embassy in Manila and Malacanang.
The mission, he said, will consult local fisherfolk, environmental groups and local government officials on the proposed omnibus demand that seeks to address the current environmental disaster in the 130,000-hectare coral reef.
The demands which will be presented to a public forum on March 12 include the urgent, effective and safe retrieval of USS Guardian from Tubbataha reef park, the proposal to extradite and charge officials and the 79 crew members of USS Guardian, the demand for rehabilitation of Tubbataha, the setting of a US compensation fund for future claims of small fishermen who are going to suffer the brunt of the Tubbataha environmental disaster, the urgent pullout of all US troops, warships and aircraft in the Philippines and the abrogation of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA).
Last week, officials of the United States Navy’s 7th Fleet said the extraction of USS Guardian from Tubbataha Reef could take more than a month.
The 7th Fleet, in a statement, also said that the Guardian, which was part of its armada and was earlier declared to be “beyond economical repair,” had been “decommissioned and stricken” from the US Naval Registry as of Feb. 15.
Pamalakaya insisted that despite the absence of the formal charges against the officials and crew of the US Navy minesweeper, President Benigno Simeon Aquino III should order the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Department of Justice to notify the US government through its US Embassy office in Manila to bring back the 79 crew members of USS Guardian to the Philippines while waiting for formal charges to be filed against them.
The reef damage impacts extensive fishing grounds in Mindanao and the Visayas, affecting the livelihood of about 100,000 fisherfolk, said Pamalakay.
http://www.interaksyon.com/article/56706/tubbataha-fact-finding-mission-slams-off-limits-policy-of-coast-guard
PAMALAKAY and Anakpawis are known CPP front organizations. PAMALAKAY is a sectoral front purportedly focused on issues related to fishermen while Anakpawis is CPP-associated political front. Most of the other groups mentioned in the article are CPP fronts as well.
ReplyDeleteThis "fact-finding" mission is in reality just a propaganda action intended to discredit the U.S. military and the Philippine government.
When a participating group is named "Junk the VFA Movement" it is difficult to see how any fact-finding mission would be fair and balanced.