HK maritime body checking route data on bulk carrier

MANILA, Philippines - The Hong Kong Marine Department yesterday said it is looking at the reported involvement of a “Chinese looking” vessel in the June 20 maritime accident that left one Filipino fisherman dead and four others missing.

“Regarding the reports, the Marine Department is now requesting the shipping company of MV Peach Mountain to provide the route of the ship in the period and other relevant information from the master of the ship,” the Marine Department said in a statement.

The Marine Department confirmed that the Peach Mountain is on the Hong Kong Shipping Register. The bulk carrier has a gross tonnage of 27,235 and an overall length of 186 meters, it added.

The Philippine Consulate in Hong Kong, meanwhile, said they are monitoring developments on the incident.

“We still don’t have instructions from Manila but we are monitoring closely developments on this matter,” Consul General Noel Servigon said.

The Philippine Coast Guard earlier said the incident was an “ordinary maritime accident” not related to the dispute at Scarborough Shoal, known as Panatag Shoal by the Philippines and Huangyan Island by China.

At the height of the standoff over the territorial row last month, five Hong Kong-based groups trooped to the Philippine consulate to support the Chinese government’s claim over Panatag Shoal.

The consulate also said no Filipino has reported maltreatment or job loss as a result of the territorial row between the Philippines and China.

“We have not received any report. We hope that all these things will be settled soon, of course peacefully and amicably. We have very good relations with Hong Kong people and their government,” Servigon said.

There are more than 160,000 Filipinos in the Chinese territory, 144,553 of them domestic workers.

Verification needed

Meanwhile, Sen. Edgardo Angara cautioned the government yesterday against issuing statements that a Chinese ship may have been involved in the ramming of a local fishing vessel.

“We should first verify if China was indeed responsible for this incident to avoid inflaming territorial tensions which could dampen our efforts to resolve the issue diplomatically,” said Angara, vice chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.

He said the government should ensure that its statements should not intensify tensions over the territorial dispute.

“Whoever is answerable for the death of the Filipino fisherman must be held liable. We cannot allow anyone, even China, to bully us in our own territory,” Angara said.

Sen. Gregorio Honasan, for his part, said the administration should tap “third party” referees such as the United States and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to help resolve the disputes peacefully.

“It is in everybody’s interest to get other countries involved, so that you have more leverage. Because if this is only between us, this is what will happen: Today, a fishing boat, maybe tomorrow, a Philippine tanker. Or, maybe next week, a Philippine Coast Guard cutter, if this is left unattended,” Honasan said.

He did not discount the possibility that the situation “will escalate unless we talk to the global audience and inform other countries, (of our situation) from a position of moral high ground and high political strength.”

‘File charges’

Leaders of the activist fisherfolk group Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) and Anakpawis party-list urged President Aquino yesterday to have “the political will to pursue charges” before the International Tribunal on the Law of the Seas (ITLOS) against the Australian owner of MV Peach Mountain.

The President should also consider charges against the Chinese government and the Hong Kong Administrative Region where the ship was registered, they said.

Anakpawis vice chairman Fernando Hicap and Pamalakaya vice chairman Salvador France said the President seemed reluctant to act decisively on the incident.

“If Mr. Aquino really wants to deliver justice to the Filipino small fisherfolk, then by all means, he should assert the politically correct and morally right actions and pursue the cause for justice at all cost,” they said. With Christina Mendez, Ding Cervantes