MANILA – Various groups have protested outside the US embassy in Manila over the failure of the American government to compensate the destruction of a portion of the Tubbataha Reef, a marine sanctuary off Palawan province, by the military ship USS Guardian.
The groups condemned the refusal of the US government to compensate the damage caused grounding of the ship after it ignored warnings from Filipino rangers.
“The US government’s refusal to pay up clearly shows how it views and treats the Philippines: as a door mat, for them to step on, and discard when it has outlived its usefulness,” Vencer Crisostomo, national chairperson of Anakbayan, said in a statement sent to the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner.
“There is no excuse for the U.S government not to come up with the P58 million fine, when it is able to spend $682 billion for its military last year. It even spen $45 million in salvaging its warship. Fifty eight million pesos is but a drop,” he added.
Some 2,345 square meters of the Tubbataha Park, a UNESCO Heritage Site, was destroyed exactly a year ago. The reefs house at least 350 species of corals and 350 species of fishes, a large amount even by global standards.
“If someone laid waste to, say, the Grand Canyon or the Yellowstone Park, the U.S government would certainly demand compensation. But their logic apparently is, since it’s just their favorite toxic waste dumping ground in Asia, they don’t need to pay up,” Crisostomo said.
The group reiterated its demand for an end to the U.S troop presence in the country, noting that the destruction of Tubbataha Reef is the latest in a century-long list of atrocities committed by the American military against the Philippines, starting with the Philippine-American War in 1899.
“Actions speak louder than words. The U.S government, especially its military, has no respect for the Philippine people and does not have our interests at heart,” Crisostomo said.
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