SC urged to direct US to pay for Tubbataha damage

MANILA, PhilippinesMilitant group Bayan on Thursday asked the Supreme Court to issue a temporary environmental protection order against the USS Guardian which ran aground on  Tubbataha Reef in Sulu in January 2013. 

In its third motion  for TEPO,  Bayan said the US government has yet to pay for the damage caused on the reef which has been declared as a World Heritage site by the United Nation Education,  Scientific and Cultural Organization.

"To this day, the US has not paid a single cent for the damage it caused to the World Heritage Site. The Aquino government has failed to uphold national interest and allowed the US government to make a mockery of our domestic laws," Bayan secretary general Renato Reyes Jr. said.

Reyes, in the group's motion for TEPO, also asked the US government to pay an initial deposit of P58 million for the damage on the reef brought about by the grounding to the US mine sweeper vessel.

The group also asked the SC to order the suspension of all US military exercises and port calls of US ships, pending the absence of any environmental guidelines in the US-Philippine Visiting Forces Agreement.