The owner and fishermen of the F/B Gem-Ver 1 fishing vessel that was rammed by a Chinese ship three years ago have finally been fully compensated, receiving P12 million in total, the Department of Justice revealed Wednesday.
“Full compensation has already been made in favor of the vessel owner and the fishermen,” Justice Undersecretary Adrian Sugay said in a text message to reporters.
In April, the DOJ said the current settlement amounted to P6 million, or half of the P12 million compensation sought by the crewmen and the boat owner.
Sugay said the victims received the payment on May 16.
This developed as The South China Morning Post reported that China put an unmanned deep-water station through its paces in a major test at the bottom of the South China Sea last month, citing a report from state broadcaster CCTV on Tuesday.
The test included connecting a laboratory to the base station—a first for the country—and assessing the operations of a deep-sea glider and virtual mooring buoy for communication, the Post article said.
The test was carried out by researchers aboard the scientific vessel Tansuo 2, or Exploration 2, which returned to port in Hainan on Monday, CCTV added.
In June 2019, the Chinese fishing vessel Yuemaobinyu 42212 rammed Gem-Ver 1 (Gem-Vir) at Recto Bank in the West Philippine Sea. It then left the area, abandoning 22 Filipino fishermen who clung to the wreckage of their boat for hours until a passing Vietnam ship rescued them.
In defense of its fishermen, China claimed that its vessel had not intended to leave the Filipinos in distress but was forced to sail away for fear of being besieged by other Filipino boats near the area.
On the unmanned Chinese ship trial, Chen Jun, an associate research fellow of the Institute of Deep-Sea Science and Engineering at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said it focused on testing the main functions of the deep-sea base station and verifying the ability of the station’s system control, energy management and communications system, the SCMP report said.
The in-situ laboratory was connected with the base station with the help of a manned submersible on the seabed at an unspecified site in the waters, the Post report added.
The station supplied power and communications to the laboratory and the whole system operated stably for seven days at an ocean depth of over 1,400 metres (4,600 feet), the report said.
Tansuo 2 is the first Chinese vessel that can carry a manned submersible capable of going to depths of over 10,000 metres. It has a maximum speed of 14.2 knots and a cruising range of 15,000 nautical miles.