Jakarta to release 49 Pinoy fishermen

No charges.

The Indonesian government has decided not to file charges of illegal fishing and illegal entry against the 49 Filipino fishermen arrested in North Sulawesi, Foreign Affairs Secretary Blas Ople said yesterday.

Indonesia will also hand these fishermen back to the Philippines on Thursday, Ople said.

He added that the Indonesian government also apologized Friday for the sinking of the four fishing boats by the Indonesian navy, which opened fire on the vessels when the Filipino fishermen tried to flee.

The 49 Filipino fishers will be repatriated to Davao via a Marpati Airlines flight from Bitung, North Sulawesi, Ople said.

He said he was assured that the fishermen are being treated humanely by Indonesian authorities at the naval base in Bitung where they are detained.

He added that the Filipinos are well fed and free to roam the area. "We are indebted to their act of kindness," Ople added, referring to the Indonesian government’s decision not to sue the Filipino fishermen.

Meanwhile, a new, state-of-the-art chart of the Philippine national territory which includes the disputed Palmas island would cost at least $20 million, international law expert Professor Harry Roque said.

In contrast, Indonesia, which also lays claim to Palmas island, has already invested $40 million to chart its maritime borders completely in the modern and internationally accepted digital format under the 1984 World Geodetic System (WGS-84), Roque said.

The Philippines, on the other hand, has yet to start any form of hydrographic charting and designation of sealanes in earnest, he said.

Roque said comparable, but cheaper, technology for the development of "comprehensive and accurate" maritime charts are available to the Philippines. These include remote sensing, "a coastal baseline mapping of the Philippine archipelago according to WGS-84 standards," which costs "around $20 million," he added.

This coastal baseline mapping, Roque said, could be funded under the 26th Yen Loan Package from the Japanese government.

Roque said the new charts will be needed to harmonize the 1984 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) definitions of Philippine internal waters.

According to Roque, "internal waters," as defined by the UN charters, do not entirely match the provisions on "archipelagic waters" of Part IV of the 1984 UNCLOS.

"Time is running out on us," he said, adding that the Philippines has to beat a three-year deadline to submit definitions of the limits of its continental shelf, archipelagic sealanes and other areas, such as the "particularly sensitive sea areas (PSSAs)" required by the International Maritime Organization (IMO).