From the Daily Tribune (Jun 23): US Navy report on ship grounding nothing but alibis — militant group
The activist fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) yesterday dismissed the US report on USS Guardian grounding on the Tubbataha Reef as “tall tale of usual alibi,” saying the report was meant to obscure the truth and reduce the issue to some technical blunder.
“In fact it is not a report, it is just a long narration of excuses authored by propaganda department of Washington DC. It is like a tall tale of usual alibi made to treat the global public to a roller coaster ride,” said Pamalakaya information officer Gerry Albert Corpuz in a statement.
Adm. Cecil Haney, commanding officer of the US Pacific Fleet, in a 160-page document, said lack of leadership and faulty navigational equipment led to the grounding of the former USS Guardian on the Tubbataha Reef last January, which could have been prevented if the officers and members of the American minesweeper adhere to prudent, safe and sound navigation principles.
The US military official said the watch team’s observations of visual cues in the hours leading up to the grounding, combined with electronic cues and alarms, should have triggered immediate steps to resolvewarnings and reconcile discrepancies.
Haney said the Jan.17 incident was a “tragic mishap” which is wholly preventable and was the product of poor voyage planning, poor execution and unfortunate circumstances. The US report said the investigation uncovers no single point of failure; instead, there were numerous links in the error chain leading up to the grounding — had any one of which been appropriately addressed, the grounding would have been prevented.
The US report, however, recommended “further administrative action against the commanding general of the USS Guardian, Lt. Cmdr. Mark Rice, the executive officer and navigator Lt. Daniel Tyler, the assistant navigator and the officer of the deck at the time of the grounding.
For his part, Pamalakaya vice chairman Salvador France said that they were right all along that the US report would be biased.
“We were correct with our fearless forecast that the US report on Tubbataha Reef is biased to Washington DC and would be meant to absolve this global policeman from his crime against the Filipino people and its heinous crime to Philippine environment. The 160-page document affirmed the sum of all our fears,” France said.
“The US report on Tubbataha environmental disaster exonerated Washington DC and reduced the highly questionable incident to a drama of unfortunate event and plain and simple human error,” France noted.
The Philippine government previously reported that USS Guardian damaged 2,345.67 square meters of the marine protected area and had asked the US government to pay the Manila government a fine of P58 million for the damage.
Meanwhile, Pamalakaya followed up their request to Department of Justice (DoJ) Secretary Leila de Lima to file criminal and other appropriate charges against officials and 79 other crew members of USS Guardian.
The militant group said it was wondering why until now there is no progress on their request letter to the justice chief filed last February urging De Lima to investigate and file appropriate charges against officials and 79 other crew members of the US minesweeper ship.
http://www.tribune.net.ph/index.php/nation/item/15737-us-navy-report-on-ship-grounding-nothing-but-alibis-militant-group
The activist fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) yesterday dismissed the US report on USS Guardian grounding on the Tubbataha Reef as “tall tale of usual alibi,” saying the report was meant to obscure the truth and reduce the issue to some technical blunder.
“In fact it is not a report, it is just a long narration of excuses authored by propaganda department of Washington DC. It is like a tall tale of usual alibi made to treat the global public to a roller coaster ride,” said Pamalakaya information officer Gerry Albert Corpuz in a statement.
Adm. Cecil Haney, commanding officer of the US Pacific Fleet, in a 160-page document, said lack of leadership and faulty navigational equipment led to the grounding of the former USS Guardian on the Tubbataha Reef last January, which could have been prevented if the officers and members of the American minesweeper adhere to prudent, safe and sound navigation principles.
The US military official said the watch team’s observations of visual cues in the hours leading up to the grounding, combined with electronic cues and alarms, should have triggered immediate steps to resolvewarnings and reconcile discrepancies.
Haney said the Jan.17 incident was a “tragic mishap” which is wholly preventable and was the product of poor voyage planning, poor execution and unfortunate circumstances. The US report said the investigation uncovers no single point of failure; instead, there were numerous links in the error chain leading up to the grounding — had any one of which been appropriately addressed, the grounding would have been prevented.
The US report, however, recommended “further administrative action against the commanding general of the USS Guardian, Lt. Cmdr. Mark Rice, the executive officer and navigator Lt. Daniel Tyler, the assistant navigator and the officer of the deck at the time of the grounding.
For his part, Pamalakaya vice chairman Salvador France said that they were right all along that the US report would be biased.
“We were correct with our fearless forecast that the US report on Tubbataha Reef is biased to Washington DC and would be meant to absolve this global policeman from his crime against the Filipino people and its heinous crime to Philippine environment. The 160-page document affirmed the sum of all our fears,” France said.
“The US report on Tubbataha environmental disaster exonerated Washington DC and reduced the highly questionable incident to a drama of unfortunate event and plain and simple human error,” France noted.
The Philippine government previously reported that USS Guardian damaged 2,345.67 square meters of the marine protected area and had asked the US government to pay the Manila government a fine of P58 million for the damage.
Meanwhile, Pamalakaya followed up their request to Department of Justice (DoJ) Secretary Leila de Lima to file criminal and other appropriate charges against officials and 79 other crew members of USS Guardian.
The militant group said it was wondering why until now there is no progress on their request letter to the justice chief filed last February urging De Lima to investigate and file appropriate charges against officials and 79 other crew members of the US minesweeper ship.
http://www.tribune.net.ph/index.php/nation/item/15737-us-navy-report-on-ship-grounding-nothing-but-alibis-militant-group