ShareThisPinoy Fisher dies, 4 missing
as HK ship rams Phl boat
MANILA – Tension gripped the West Philippine Sea again after a China boat registered in Hong Kong rammed a boat of Filipino fishermen off Pangasinan near the disputed Scarborough Shoal, killing one of the fishermen while four others went missing.
The fatality was identified as Christopher Carbonel, who died of hypothermia after the collision. His family in Bolinao, Pangasinan was given P10,000 in burial assistance and family food pack.
The injured fishermen were Herman Balmores, 51, Edemio Balmores Jr., 40, and Marcelino Damian, 32, all of Bolinao town who were given P5,000 each and family food packs. They were rescued by other vessels which passed by the area of the incident.
The Philippine Coast Guard said it is suspecting Hong Kong-registered “M/V Peach Mountain” as the cargo vessel that rammed the Filipino fishing boat AXL John.
President Benigno Aquino immediately vowed to seek justice for the death of the Filipino fisherman even as four others remain missing.
This developed as the Coast Guard said the collision that left a Filipino fisherman dead last week was between a local fishing boat and a maritime vessel registered in Hong Kong, an administrative region of China.
Coast Guard commandant Vice Admiral Edmund Tan said this was the result of their initial investigation but did not give the reason why the vessel was considered to be from Hong Kong.
Tan, however, said the incident cannot be tied to the standoff in Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal between the Philippines and China because the the incident happened “too far” or north of the disputed shoal.
Meanwhile, Vietnam joined the fray when it renewed its claim over part of the Spratlys chain of islands and reefs, including the Palawan island town of Kalayaan.
Twenty eight vessels of China were spotted by Philippine Navy reconnaissance flight in the disputed Scarborough Shoal, a day after it claimed that it had pulled out all its ships from Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal. Many days earlier, China had as many as 125 ships in the area.
As the tension intensified, a nuclear-powered submarine of the United States Navy, the Louiseville, docked at the Subic Freeport, once a US naval base, igniting protests and criticisms from several groups.
US authorities said the Louiseville was the second US Navy submarine to dock in Subic amidst the tension with China which is claiming Scarborough Shoal and the Spratlys group of islands and reefs as part of its territory.
The Philippine Navy was the first to pull out from the Scarborough Shoal which the Philippines claim as part of the municipality of Masinloc in Zambales. The shoal is also called the Bajo de Masinloc.
Defense Secretary Voltaire T. Gazmin disclosed in Camp Aguinaldo that while China continued to maintain its presence in and around the shoal, not one Philippine vessel or fishing boat was in the area.
Vice Admiral Alexander Pama, Navy flag officer-in-command (FOIC), said the Chinese vessels spotted outside the lagoon were three maritime surveillance ships (CMS) and two Fishery Law Enforcement Command (FLEC) ships, while six fishing boats and 17 dinghies were seen inside the lagoon.
Earlier, China announced it was imposing a fishing ban to last until August 1 in the Philippine territory that it was claiming.
The Philippines refused to recognize China’s fishing ban, but the Philippines eventually followed with its own fishing ban so the fishes in the area could replenish.
On June 15, both ships from the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) and the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) pulled out from the shoal upon the order of the President due to bad weather.
Philippine authorities, however, later said they were considering sending back our vessels to the area due to the presence of the Chinese vessels. This, as Gazmin stressed that the country exercised sovereign rights over the shoal.
A Chinese military general has been quoted by the Chinese media that Chinese ships should search and board all Filipino vessels that will enter the shoal.
In other developments:
1. Senator Edgardo Angara said the government should be careful in pointing the blame on China with regard to the unidentified vessel that smashed last week into a Philippine fishing boat, killing a local fisherman.
Angara said the government must first verify ownership of the vessel that rammed the fishing boat before pointing the blame on China so as not to intensify tensions over the disputed Scarborough Shoal.
However, the senator said whoever is responsible for the death of the Filipino fisherman and those injured in the sea mishap should be held liable.
“We cannot allow anyone, even China, to bully us in our own territory,” Angara said adding that caution must be taken even as the government is now investigating the incident.
2. Defense Undersecretary Benito Ramos said that initial investigation showed that the vessel, which allegedly bears the mark “Hong Kong” and some Chinese characters on its stern, was too large to even feel that it rammed and destroyed the “small” AXL John fishing boat that was adrift in the waters of Bolinao town on June 20.
The Zambales-based navy station was cited as having monitored the M/V Peach Mountain at 9 a.m., June 20. The cargo vessel, it was reported, was moving north at a speed of 10.1 knots.
The incident took place 178 nautical miles northwest of Bolinao and from calculations made by maritime experts who claim to have used as basis of computation the speed of the ship, results appear to be inconclusive.
According to a report from the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC), the Philippine boat was allegedly hit by the foreign vessel at 1 p.m. on June 20.
Navy officials said another ship could have hit the fishing boat AXL John as there are 90 ships that passed through the area on the very day the sea collision happened. The area where the incident took place is a “transit area” of ships, including foreign ones, which makes it harder to pinpoint as to exactly what ship hit the local fishing boat, if it was hit at all, which it was not, going by the Navy’s account of Balmores’ statement.