The USS Guardian also struck the reef south-east of Palawan island on 17 January.

BBC: Philippines 'discovers rare pangolins' on Chinese ship

Danny, a school teacher on Palawan island, in the west, was accused of rape.

CNN: Senator Fernan's 10-year crusade for speedy justice

The fuel will be processed on a floating rig some 80 km northwest of Palawan island in the west, and piped 504 km to Batangas province, south of Manila.

CNN: Up from the Ocean

She also proposed support to assist in striking a balance between preservation and economic development in the Palawan Biosphere Reserve, where the issue of mining has come into the international spotlight.

UNESCO: MEDIA SERVICES

The bay's welcome lack of development is partly an effect of environmental progressivism (in 1998, the government declared northern Palawan a protected area) and partly an emblem of the country's late-blooming tourism industry.

WSJ: The Philippines's Strange Paradise

Among Palawan's deep trove of wildlife, the most precious to the local economy, Gustillo explains, is the swiftlet, a small darting bird whose nests, built largely of its own spittle, are the essential ingredient in bird's nest soup.

WSJ: The Philippines's Strange Paradise

Until recently there were two ways to visit Apo: you could shell out for a live-aboard dive safari operating out of the town of Puerto Galera in eastern Mindoro, or out of Coron town in Palawan province south of Mindoro.

BBC: The undiscovered jewel of the Philippines

He brings me to the summit of a little mountain to take in a panorama of the bay and, with any luck, to spot some of Palawan's celebrity fauna: green sea turtles, dugongs, sharks, whale sharks and the world's most adorable ungulate, the Chihuahua-size Philippine mouse deer.

WSJ: The Philippines's Strange Paradise