The rampaging Somali pirates

At first blush, it appears that any depredation in the high seas by the infamous Somali pirates is neither here nor there. As if muttering diffidently and disinterestedly, "Who cares?" But then, Filipino seafarers who now man as crew of ocean-going maritime vessels of many national flags are often taken hostage of the hijacked vessels by the Somali pirates, for ransom in millions of dollars.

These pirates who are equipped with fastcrafts and fully armed with sophisticated weaponry are plying their trade with impunity. In many instances, the merchant vessels which opted to ignore their warnings to stop for boarding had been fired upon with rockets. In short, the Somalians operate with no compunction to sink the targeted vessel and to kill the people on board.

At first these Somalian ocean predators who were then few, confined within the Gulf of Aden, a busy trade route. Now many Somalian marauders have extended their piracy to the Indian Ocean, off the coast of Seychelles, and off the Oman coast.

In 2009, the various Somali pirates raked in no less than $60 M in ransom. At random now… There have been five Filipino sailors still in captivity… 17 Filipino sailors were released after the Taiwanese-flagged vessel paid the ransom… It was the longest held vessel with Filipino crew… Singapore-flagged MT Pramone also freed after paying ransom. Lately, another all-Filipino-crewed vessel has just been captured by pirates, so far not released, until ransomed.

In the past years until now, the Filipino tars constitute the major maritime workforce of merchant vessels seized for ransom by the Somali marauders. With their principal-owners of ships being civilians, they can not do battle with fully-armed sea pirates.

One recalls only two instances when naval contingents of government came to intervene… The first was when the US Navy rescued the captain of an American-flagged vessel from his capture still at sea. The other was when the naval escort of a European merchant ship sank the mother ship of a Somalian pirate group. Indeed, some reports trickle in that some ocean-going maritime ships being escorted by their government's naval contingent.

The basic issue is why the world's merchant maritime nations have not addressed through the United Nations this common problem in unison and with clout. Piracy in the high seas is an offense against humanity and, legally-speaking, any country where an element of the offense has taken place, has jurisdiction to take cognizance of the offense.

The most logical international entity to counter the Somalian pirates is the United Nations. The European Union has their NATO naval force patrolling the international trade routes, nonetheless, Somalian pirates recently seized a British Virgin Islands cargo ship off the Oman coast, beyond the regular transit corridors.

The United States couldn't act as the world's policeman anymore. Its military forces had been over-worked and spread thin with the Iraq war, and now at the Afghanistan front. The naval force countering Somalian pirates is the NATO naval force now operating in international sealanes.

Incidentally, just as the Taliban and Osama Bin Laden have embroiled the Americans and NATO countries in the on-going Afghan war-front, the al-Shabab (meaning The Youth) extremists now constitute the young "jihadis" based in Southern Somalia that has become a "jihadi" operational deployment facility. The al-Shababs are of cosmopolitan leadership, since they are migrants in USA, Britain and other countries who have returned to Somalia. Thus, there's no doubt that the growing number of Somalian pirates belong to the al-Shabab extremists.

The question is, what has the Philippines through the foreign affairs department done as regards the problem on sea piracy vis-à-vis the role of the United Nations? Has Philippines made strong representations for the UNO's active hand to quell the Somalian pirates?

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