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| Image credit: Western Command, Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) |
This kind of vessels are equipped to detect mines at sea, right? So anywhere they are at a given time, I’m assuming that they know what’s under the hull. And it’s basic for every seafaring vessel to have equipment that pinpoints their location and the possible topographical features of the seabed beneath them. So they can’t really hide behind the excuse that they didn’t know where they were…and, thankfully, they didn’t use that pathetic excuse.
Sans the advice from the park rangers, I’m pretty sure the USS Guardian’s captain would’ve known they were dangerously close to the protected reef even several miles away.
But they didn’t even try to avoid the reef. The park rangers advised them they were close to the reef and were told to veer off. But they didn’t. Instead, the ship captain told the reef authorities to take it up with the US Ambassador.
Huh? Last time I checked the Sulu Sea was still part of the Philippines and nowhere was there any floating US embassy atop the Tubbataha Reef to warrant such a repartee from a US naval official.
And, take this: reef authorities also claim the minesweeper “entered the area without a permit.” Methinks some foreign official was acting with impunity where he shouldn’t.
By all intents and purposes, the USS Guardian is a vessel of war. It’s a military ship, for g’ness sake, not a tourism or research boat! It didn’t have any business on the reef.
I’m also certain that the route between the Philippines and Indonesia – where the USS Guardian was headed – has provisions for avoiding the protected reef. I’m fairly confident, too, that an American military vessel with anti-mine capabilities have enough sophistication (read: technology heretofore unknown and highly advanced) to easily locate itself in the overall scheme of things (in this case, the Sulu Sea).
So why did the USS Guardian not skirt the Tubbataha Reef?
Why did it continue on its dangerous course, unchecked?
Why did it ignore Philippine authorities and even had the temerity to tell said officials to defer to a foreign official who had no say whatsoever in a country’s exercise of its sovereignty?
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| Map of the Tubbataha Reef |
And it’s not because American forces have had “exercises” (or are maybe having exercises?) in the area together with Manila's soldiers.
And no, it’s not because the USS Guardian is in that vicinity for covert purposes. Far from the truth, I’m sure. (Maybe, they really just got lost? HA!)
To date, the USS Guardian is still stuck on the reef, its crew safely off the vessel. Both American and Filipino military/government officials say there’s no oil leak. But that’s the least of our worries.
Corral takes a looooong time to develop. With the damage that’s been done with the Guardian’s grounding at Tubbataha, we don’t know how long the reef will recover from it. No amount of fines can make up for the senseless destruction that’s been wrought.
And it is a senseless destruction, wrought by the hubris of a foreign naval officer who didn’t think deferring to the authorities of the country he’s passing through was part of his job description. Complain to the US Ambassador, indeed!
Then there’s this interesting tidbit: The USS Mustin, an Arleigh Burke class missile destroyer, will be at the area ostensibly to oversee the removal of the USS Guardian from the Tubbataha. What’s a first class, 90-missile-load warship doing rescuing a minesweeper in the area? Overkill, methinks.
Something stinks, I tell you. (Or I'm just reading too many Robert Ludlum novels these days, heh. Or, maybe, just vestiges of my ex-Boss' overactive imagination that's rubbed off on me.)
[ Source: CNN ]
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