BAGUIO CITY, Philippines—Activists gathered outside the Supreme Court compound here on Tuesday to remind the justices about a writ of kalikasan petition against the United States and the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) for the 2013 destruction of a section of the Tubbataha Reef.
The compound was surrounded by policemen when eight members of Tongtongan ti Umili (TTU) approached and held up handwritten slogans, calling for a ruling on the April 2013 petition filed by Kalikasan and other environmentalist groups, and two Catholic bishops.
The petitioners have asked the court to grant to the government “primary and exclusive jurisdiction” over American officials they considered liable for the Jan. 17, 2013, destruction of the reef when a US Navy minesweeper ran aground, said Perry Mendoza, TTU spokesperson.
A ruling is important in light of Malacañang’s decision to enter into an enhanced defense cooperation treaty with the US, which reopens military facilities to American troops, Mendoza said.
Mendoza said the minesweeper, USS Guardian, proved the harm brought to the country by US military vessels that had been granted expanded access to Philippine territory.
The lawsuit asked the high court to strike down two VFA provisions that grant immunity to American servicemen for offenses committed on Philippine soil.
The US officials held accountable for the reef’s destruction, among them US Vice Adm. Scott Smith, commander of the US 7th Fleet, and Lt. Cmdr. Mark Rice, commanding officer of the Guardian, may assert these VFA provisions, Mendoza said.
TTU is an affiliate of the Makabayan group that participated in the lawsuit.
The writ of kalikasan petition says “the unauthorized entry, grounding, salvage, and ongoing postsalvage operations of the Guardian violate the constitutional rights of the residents of the provinces surrounding the Tubbataha Reef on the Sulu Sea—Palawan, Antique, Aklan, Guimaras, Iloilo, Negros Occidental, Negros Oriental, Zamboanga del Norte, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi—to a balanced and healthful ecology.”
The vessel ran aground “approximately 130 kilometers southeast of Palawan after completing a port call at the former US naval base of Subic Bay, Olongapo City, and en route to her next port of call in Indonesia.”
“The USS Guardian did not have a permit to enter [the Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park],” the petition said. “The vessel did not inform the marine park rangers of its presence and situation and was later discovered only through radar at 4 a.m. on [Jan. 17, 2013].”
“A year of inaction is a year of injustice,” the TTU said, quoting a statement issued by the Kalikasan national secretariat.
Kalikasan said the court had not explained the delay of addressing the petition. This “defeats the purpose of having a timely intervention in a concern that threatens our right to a balanced and healthful ecology when these legal remedies are hindered for no concrete and acceptable reason at all,” it said. Vincent Cabreza, with a report from Jhoanna Marie Buenaobra, Inquirer Northern Luzon