Taiwan to forward murder complaint vs PCG to NBI

MANILA, Philippines - The criminal charges filed in Taiwan by the family of the suspected Taiwanese poacher killed by members of the Philippine Coast Guard off Balintang Channel last May 9 will be forwarded to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), an official bared yesterday.

NBI Deputy Director for Regional Operations lawyer Virgilio Mendez said the murder complaint filed by the daughter of slain Taiwanese fisherman Hung Shih-cheng before the Pingtung prosecutor’s office in Taiwan last month would be necessary to initiate a criminal case under the Philippine judicial process.

“The Taiwanese prosecutors will officially forward to us that complaint so we can have complete records since this is a criminal case,” he explained.

Once received, the murder complaint may be used by the NBI to initiate criminal case against Coast Guard personnel involved in the killing of the fisherman.

Earlier, Mendez said the family of Hung could file criminal charges against the Coast Guard here since the country has criminal jurisdiction over the incident that happened within its territory.

Hung’s daughter, Hung Tzu Chien filed the murder complaint but did not immediately name the respondents pending completion of the report of the Taiwanese investigators.

Unlike in Philippine law, the filing of cases ahead of an investigation is allowed under Taiwanese law.

Apart from the complaint, the NBI official said Taiwanese authorities also agreed to forward evidence gathered from Taiwan that he said would be necessary in a probable preliminary investigation in the Department of Justice and trial in court.

“If in the event we will be filing charges against Coast Guard members, we need authenticated documents so they can be admissible in court,” he stressed.

Mendez cited for instance the slugs recovered from the fishing vessel.

“Without the slugs being presented by us during the trial this case will not move so we made some agreement. We requested them if they were willing to present the slugs, and they said okay,” he added.

The official tasked to prepare the report on the NBI probe said the transfer of evidence from Taiwan would be done through the economic and cultural cooperation offices in Manila and Taipei.

Mendez said their Taiwanese counterparts, in a meeting last Friday, made the same request on the evidence gathered here. Specifically, he said they asked for a photograph of the vessel data recorder of the PCG vessel involved and the memory card of the video camera used to record the incident.

Mendez said that there were at least two significant agreements in the findings of both teams in their separate but cooperative probes regarding the exact coordinates of the site of the incident and on the number of firearms used by the Coast Guard.

The NBI official said they are not ready to release findings yet since the NBI has requested additional documents from the Taiwanese authorities, particularly the slugs recovered from the fishing vessel and the authenticated medico-legal and ballistic reports.

“We cannot come out with a definite final conclusion unless we will have the official report coming from them. We need the authenticated copy of the report to be coursed through a proper procedure,” he explained.