"We must stop the bullying by standing up to the bully. Anything less is cowardice and capitulation."
"We must stop the bullying by standing up to the bully. Anything less is cowardice and capitulation."
"Grossly despicable and inhumane."
This was how Senator Risa Hontiveros described the collision of a Chinese vessel with a Philippine fishing boat last Sunday, where the Chinese abandoned the Filipino crew of 22 to their fate in the waters of Recto Bank in the West Philippine Sea.
A passing Vietnamese boat rescued the Filipino fishermen and turned them over to officials of the Armed Forces of the Philippines Western Command.
In a statement, Hontiveros urged President Rodrigo Duterte to sanction China, calling the action of the Chinese ship’s personnel as “treacherous and intended to harm if proven that the reported collision was intentional."
The Filipino boat, the FB Gimver, was anchored at the time of the incident.
Hontiveros supported Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana’s earlier statement. He said, “We denounce the actions of the Chinese fishing vessel for immediately leaving the incident scene abandoning the 22 Filipino crewmen to the mercy of the elements.”
On Thursday, Malacañang called on the Chinese government to sanction their compatriots.
In a statement last Thursday, Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo said, “The act of abandonment, by those sailing the Chinese fishing vessel of 22 Filipino fishermen aboard their anchored and stationary watercraft hit by them, is uncivilized as it is outrageous.”
However, the government, while issuing a statement full of sonorous adjectives and filing a diplomatic protest via the Department of Foreign Affairs, stopped short of more “severe options,” even as former Philippine foreign secretary Albert del Rosario called for Chinese accountability.
Del Rosario said in a statement last Wednesday, "What is obvious is that Goliath, the neighborhood bully, will continue to rear its ugly head to intimidate our poor fishermen. We need to find a way to hold China's leadership accountable."
While some sources say this is the first time a Chinese vessel has sunk a Filipino boat in the WPS, Francisco Tuyay, in a June 13 Manila Standard article, writes that “in 2013, a Filipino fishing boat also sank near the Scarborough Shoal after it was rammed by a Chinese cargo vessel.”
First, I thank the personnel of the Vietnamese ship for their humanitarian action in saving the lives of the 22 fishermen. I hope they can all be named so that their action may be properly credited and lauded. The government should award these Vietnamese seamen plaques of appreciation for their kindness.
Second, the dastardly Chinese crew should be condemned for their malicious actions, made in defiance of international laws on the duty to rescue.
Third, China should be held accountable for this and the many other incidents that impinge upon Philippine sovereignty in the WPS.
“There is no doubt that the duty to rescue is one of the best-established principles of the international law of the sea, maritime law, and international humanitarian law,” wrote International law professor Irini Papanicolopulu in the International Review of the Red Cross (2016).
He added that the duty to save life at sea is provided for in Article 98 of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS):
1. Every State shall require the master of a ship flying its flag, in so far as he can do so without serious danger to the ship, the crew, or the passengers:
(a) to render assistance to any person found at sea in danger of being lost;
(b) to proceed with all possible speed to the rescue of persons in distress, if informed of their need of assistance, in so far as such action may reasonably be expected of him;
(c) after a collision, to render assistance to the other ship, its crew, and its passengers and, where possible, to inform the other ship of the name of his own ship, its port of registry, and the nearest port at which it will call.”
China is a signatory to the UNCLOS. Its vessel violated this law, as well as other international maritime law treaties that provide for the duty to rescue: the Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS Convention), International Convention on Maritime Search and Rescue (SAR Convention), and the International Convention on Salvage.
We have known for years that Chinese personnel are building bases in the WPS, harvesting giant clams and destroying their habitats, and bullying fisherfolk legally in the area. Yet our government cozies up to them and takes their loan money.
Panelo says it is "likely" that President Duterte will order cutting ties with China if it is proven that the ship collision was intentional. Duterte’s knee-jerk reaction of withdrawing Philippine diplomats from Canada after the garbage row was faster, and over a smaller matter.
Why the delay in making a similar action, when it is already clear that the Chinese ship intentionally abandoned the Filipino crew after hitting their ship, in violation of international laws?
We must stop the bullying by standing up to the bully. Anything less is cowardice and capitulation.
Lapu-Lapu and all the other brave Filipino warriors must be turning over in their graves now. /FB and Twitter: @DrJennyO