Heavy penalties set vs owners of cargo ship that destroyed corals

BusinesMirror: Heavy penalties set vs owners of cargo ship that destroyed corals

THE Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) wants the owners of MV Double Prosperity, which inflicted severe damage on Bakud Reef in Kaimba, Sarangani, on May 8, to pay dearly for its recklessness.

Aside from the cost of the damaged coral area, Environment Secretary Ramon Paje wants the total value of marine products that have been lost because of the accident computed and charged against the owners of the ship.

“We estimate that the immediate damage cost in Bakud Reef could run up to P42 million. But charging this amount to Double Prosperity is like giving a slap on the wrist of the ship’s owners, because invaluable marine products were lost as a consequence of the accident,” Paje said in a press statement.

He ordered the Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau, headed by Director Mundita Lim, to recommend in Wednesday’s meeting of the Protected Area Management Board (PAMB) of the Sarangani Bay Protected Seascape to consider in the computation of penalty to be imposed on the erring ship the value of lost marine life that would remain nonexistent for at least 20 years, the minimum period needed before the corals can regain their former condition.

Paje said P42 million is “too small” a compensation, considering the damage caused by MV Double Prosperity, because it does not take into consideration the lost marine life that could have spawned in the corals, that could ultimately benefited Saranggani residents, especially the fishermen and the allied enterprises dependent on the area’s teeming fishing industry.

The 225-meter Panama-registered cargo vessel, loaded with 65,900 metric tons of coal, was heading for India from Australia when it plowed through a portion of Bakud Reef, which is within the 215,950-hectare Sarangani Bay Protected Seascape (SBPS), a protected area under Presidential Proclamation 756.

A hectare of coral reef has an annual average value of $130,000 in terms of services to humans, according to a research posted on the Science Daily web site.

The SBPS’s PAMB has yet to issue an official damage assessment.

Paje hopes that the penalty it will impose against the owners of the erring ship would reflect his recommendation.

The SBPS-PAMB that is co-chaired by Sarangani Gov. Miguel Dominguez and DENR-Region 12 Executive Director Alfredo Pascual is set to convene on May 18 to assess the damage.