P11 MILLON PER SQ. METER? WHERE'S THAT?

So, the US Navy's original plan to remove the "USS Guardian" war ship out of the Tubbataha Reef, off Palawan,  towards end January or early February will no longer be pursued.  Instead, the US Navy has decided to now dismantle the whole ship and break it into pieces -- what a massive cost of scrap! --  ostensibly to avoid further damage to the Reef, considered a World Heritage and a Philippine "national treasure.".

Even as the US Navy had sincerely apologized for the very unfortunate incident, Philippine environmentalists, as to be expected in an environmental damage as massive as this one, continue to be shouting to the four winds in endless uproar.  It is needless to emphasize that the United States is ready and willing to answer for all the consequences caused by their warship to the country's marine resources, including all fines and compensatory damages in accordance with Philippine laws.  All the while, I thought everything would be resolved in due course in a manner mutually satisfactory to both sides.

I could not help but be downright shocked, however, when I read and realized the impact of certain relevant numbers accompanying this unfortunate happenstance.  For example, the USS Guardian pala has a value of 277 Million US Dollars.  The US government will therefore be throwing away this much with its decision to totally dismantle the entire ship into pieces.  On the other hand, the Tubbataha Reef has a total area of 97,030 square meters, of which only approximately 1,000 square meters, or slightly more than 1% have been damaged.  I could not help but mentally use some arithmetic.  Assuming a P/US$ exchange rate of P40.00, the 277 million US Dollars is equivalent to more than 11 Billion Pesos,repeat: PhP11,080,000,000.  Divide this by the 1,000 square meters of the damaged reef, and we easily get PhP11.08 Million as the cost of the damage per square meter. I cannot help but ask myself:  Is there a place in Planet Earth that costs PhP11 Million per square meter?

Of course, it was entirely the USNavy's decision to totally dismantle the USS Guardian to pieces.  While no one is telling them to do so, the decision might  be because they believe that if they would salvage the ship by having it lifted by I don't know what kind of equipment, there might be further damage to the Reef.  But while I am not an engineer, I think the damage would work both ways.   That is, they might just the same  bring further damage to the reef if the ship were just to be lifted.  But then, the ship could be salvaged at whatever value it might end up to b, not really at the price of mere scrap..

Maybe, just maybe, an American citizen named Trumps, Jr. had a point in recently saying in the news that the decision to prioritize the Reef over the ship was stupid.  Well, I refuse to comment on what Trumps Jr. must probably be alluding to. Perhaps, again, just perhaps, Trumps Jr. believes there is nothing on this earth that money cannot buy.