Chinese ship leaves

CEBU, Philippines - After over a month of being in Philippine waters and being seized by the authorities, the Chinese-flagged bulk carrier M/V Ming Yuan finally departed yesterday.

The Hong Kong-registered vessel with 24 crew on board, all Chinese, was about to depart the other night, but was detained by typhoon Gorio which hit the northern part of Cebu.

The said vessel was anchored in Tapilon Point, the detachment area of the Philippine Coast Guard Central Visayas and due to the bad weather, the PCG personnel did not allow the vessel to depart.

Assistant Station Commander Cecille Romero of the PCG Cebu Station earlier said that they did not allow the vessel to depart since they wanted to ensure the safety of the ship and crew.

The controversial vessel was stranded off Malapascua Island since May 19 and after receiving reports from the local executives of the island, it was found out by the three maritime agencies that the vessel had not made any entry notice with authorities.

With the many violations that the vessel has against regulations of the Bureau of Customs, Bureau of Immigration and the Bureau of Quarantine during the initial inspection they conducted two weeks ago, fines were imposed against the ship owners as well as its crew.

It was agent Romeo Bujawe of PHILHUA Shipping Inc., the local shipping agent of M/V Ming Yuan, who coordinated with the authorities and was sent by the Manila-based shipping agency to pay the fines to the CIQ inspection team last Friday.

Fortunately, Bujawe was able to secure all the three clearances on the same day after paying a penalty of close to P1.4 million due to the violations committed by the vessel and the crew to the inspection team.

The ship’s agent paid the penalty amounting to P1,396,240 to the three agencies as fines for the violations.

They paid a total of P1,266,240 to the Bureau of Immigration Main Office under Alien Control Officer Casimiro Madarang III, another P100,000 to the Bureau of Quarantine and another P30,000 to the Bureau of Customs.

Despite the bad weather, Bujawe was able to serve the three clearances to the chip’s captain the other night.

The serving of the clearances was delayed also due to the typhoon since Bujawe waited that a passenger motorized boat could ferry him to the anchorage area and was just waiting that the weather will subside.

After giving the clearances to the captain, Bujawe instructed the latter that the ship can already depart anytime depending on the weather condition due to the typhoon. When bad weather subsided yesterday, M/V Ming Yuan departed.

Bujawe said that the incident was just a product of miscommunication and that the ship or the shipowners did not intend to violate any of the Philippine laws.

He added that is the reason why the owners agreed to pay the fines imposed by the three maritime agencies was because they did not want the ship and the crew to suffer. —/BRP (FREEMAN)