The United States government has agreed to pay the Philippines P87 million in compensation for damaging over 2,000 square meters of corals at the Tubbataha Reef last year, Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario said Friday.
“I received correspondence just yesterday that the US has agreed to pay the compensation and what is being done at this time is that the documentation is being prepared,” Del Rosario informed Sen. Loren Legarda during the agency’s budget hearing.
Del Rosario said the Philippine and US governments have agreed to place the compensation at P87 million after undertaking “an inter-agency mechanism.”
The payment of compensation came more than a year after the USS Guardian destroyed 2,345.67 square meters of corals at the Tubbatah Reef. The incident happened Jan. 17, 2013.
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