US to pay P87 M for reef damage
MANILA, Philippines - The United States has agreed to pay the Philippines P87 million in compensation for the damage one of its ships inflicted on over 2,000 square meters of Tubbataha Reef early last year, Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario said yesterday.
“I received correspondence just yesterday that the US has agreed to pay the compensation, and what is being done at this time is that the documentation is being prepared,” Del Rosario told the Senate finance subcommittee deliberating on his department’s budget.
He said the two governments agreed to set the amount at P87 million based on an “an inter-agency mechanism.”
The minesweeper USS Guardian ran aground on Tubbataha Reef in the Sulu Sea on Jan. 17 last year. The ship had to be disassembled to extricate it from the reef, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
- Latest
- Trending
