http://globalnation.inquirer.net/62511/us-navy-ship-taking-on-water-on-tubbataha-reef

Us Navy sweeps Philippines's Reef

           When i heard these news, my heart were dishearten since Tubbataha Reef is one of the aces of the Philippines in terms of tourism especially for the lower part of the Philippines. We can't accuse anybody since this is only an accident or the misnavigation of the navies. Sometimes I got a thought that it was made on purpose since Philippines is starting to boom its economy especially that Tubbataha Reef says that it can be a rival for the Great Britain Reef in Australia because of its walls of corals and can be one of the 7 Wonders of the World. Actually there is also another incident where environmentalist Greenpeace paid 7000 dollars for damaging the coral reefs in the same area.

           They say that government impose a fine of 300 dollars per square meter of corals that were damaged. I may say that the amount would be a great help for the Philippines especially in paying our foreign debt. But if corals were not destroyed, the Philippines might have a great use for that Tubbataha Reef for over a long period of time but the money that were being paid were just easily consume.

           They say that US Navy Guardian ship damages about 1000 square meters of coral reefs, therefore US will pay 300,000 dollars and it is a great money. But does it pay for the prized possession of the Philippines that were given by God, the jobs that will being lost as the Tubbataha reef were coping to the problem, the tourism and fame that the Philippine night acquire in the future and for the nature that were developed for a long period of time?

            Of course restoring again the tourism would be hard. it takes also great money to preserve its tourism. Because of this incident, Tubbataha's tourism will get low and therefore many jobs will lost, there will be no investment from foreign countries, markets and firms will be force to shut down and government will spend a lot for their tourism to rise again. Even in the present time, there is still an effect for the Tubbataha Reef like it can't easily open diving activities in the near damaged area, some resorts must close down because of the on-going investigation of US Navy Guardian ship and employees were temporarily laid off.

              We just can't easily restore those coral reefs since it is developed over a hundred years. They say it can be planted to that same area from coral seedlings in which it can be get by not picking or extracting the coral reefs but through the corals that were naturally picked by the ocean. It takes great amount of money and a long time to restore the reefs. They say Americans were making actions to solve these problems and planning to extract the ship as soon as possible to avoid additional damages to the reefs. For me, Americans should REALLY have the initiative to solve the problem and must help the Philippines in their economy by sending more foreign investment here in the Philippines.

               I also noticed that Philippines were just taking  easy on to the Americans in terms of the problem and were rather kind to them. Maybe because we are just hospitable or maybe we had a sense of repaying their help especially during World War 1 but one might reason is that Philippines needed help from the US because of the dispute between China. Well it could be happened if US has also the sense of repaying debts or "utang na loob".

               US Navy Guardian ship or the minesweeper of the US really sweep off these days but not on the mines but to the Philippines reef.