An official of the Climate Change Commission on Saturday asked the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) to assess the damage wrought on the Tubbataha Reefs by the USS Guardian which ran aground on the World Heritage Site in the Sulu Sea. Commissioner Heherson Alvarez also warned the Philippine government against accepting payment for the damage on a square meter basis, calling the fine a measly sum compared to the damage done to the coral reefs. “It is far too simplistic to fine the US Navy on the basis of P12,000 per square meter or a measly sum of P12 million for some 1,000 square meters of damaged corals, as proposed by some quarters, because the reef is not a fallow or dormant plot of land in the seabed,” Alvarez said.

Balana, C. D. (2013, February 3). Unesco asked to help assess damage to reef. Philippine Daily Inquirer, p. A3.