A US Navy ship that got stuck on a coral reef in the Philippines ignored warnings it was headed to the World Heritage Site, an environment official said Monday.
The minesweeper USS Guardian ran aground at the Tubbataha National Marine Park, a marine sanctuary off Palawan province, 600 kilometres south of Manila, on Thursday.
Angelique Songco, superintendent of the Tubbataha Management Office, said marine rangers tried to communicate with the crew of the Guardian but were ignored.
"They called to tell the crew that the ship was headed to Tubbataha, a no-navigation area," Songco said in a Manila radio interview. "The crew of the USS Guardian told them to call the embassy, so we couldn't talk with the people on the ship."
There was no immediate response to the allegation Monday from the US embassy in Manila, which was closed for a public holiday.
The US Navy has said it was looking into the possibility that the accident was caused by a faulty navigation chart.
The US Navy has apologized for the accident as public outrage grew in the Philippines, where leftist activists on Monday took to the streets to protest the accident and denounce the presence of US troops in the country.
The protesters marched towards the US Embassy in Manila and Burned an image of the Guardian.
Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya said Philippine authorities were coordinating with US Navy personnel to come up with a removal plan.
"Foremost in these salvage operations is that the procedure should cause ... no additional damage to the reef," he told reporters, adding that efforts were also being undertaken to avoid an oil spill.
The Philippines imposes a fine of 300 dollars per square metre of coral damaged in such accidents.
In 2005, environmental activist group Greenpeace was fined almost 7,000 dollars when its ship ran aground at the Tubbataha Reef. The group blamed an inaccurate chart.