Tuesday, Apr 09, 2013
Manila: Twelve Chinese nationals were arrested and their fishing vessel impounded, for alleged poaching including damage to a marine park where it ran aground in southwestern Philippines before midnight Monday, a senior official said.
“The illegal entry of the 12 Chinese fishermen at the Tubbataha Reef is a prima facie evidence for poaching. Although only dried fish and fishing nets were taken from them, we’re assuming they wanted to fish even if they were arrested without a catch,” said Angelique Songco, manager of the Tubbataha Management Office (TMO).
If convicted, they would be fined $100,000 judicial fee, and $50,000 to $200,000 administrative fine,” said Songco, adding the amount does not yet include a fine for damaging reefs, estimated at $300 per square metre for damages, and additional $300 per square metre for rehabilitation of the damaged areas.
The local government unit where the arrested Chinese nationals come from is also liable for a fine for the damage inflicted on the Tubbataha Reef, said Songco.
Explaining what happened before the Chinese vessel ran aground on the Tubbataha Reef, Songco said the crewmen didn’t answer TMO’s radio; they responded instead with Chinese songs streaming from a Chinese radio station.
“We’re waiting for the high tide so that we could take away the fishing vessel from being struck on the reefs in the shallow area of Tubbataha,” said Songco when asked about the fate of the impounded fishing vessel.
The fishermen were detained in Palawan for questioning, said Songco,
Tubbataha Reef is 1,600km away from southeast of Hainan, China’s nearest area to the Philippines. It was the first time that Chinese fishermen were lost at the Tubbataha Reef, which is in the Sulu Sea, not in the contested South China Sea.
Since last year, the Philippines, Vietnam, and China have been engaged in competition over territorial claims to the South China Sea.
The Philippines has elevated to the United Nations its case versus China, following a standoff of Chinese and Philippine vessels near the Scarborough Shoal, in a Philippine territory in northern Luzon that began last year.
China, Vietnam, and Taiwan claim the whole of the South China Sea, based on their respective historical rights. Brunei, Malaysia, and the Philippines claim some parts of the Spratly Archipelago in the South China Sea, based on the provision of the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea that grants a 200 nautical miles exclusive economic zone starting from their shores.
A pride of the Philippines, Tubbataha has a highly diverse marine life and 15 diving sites.
Two of its diving sites were banned from divers, following the rehabilitation of 2,345 square kilometre that was damaged by the USS Guardian that ran aground the protected marine park in January. Its clearing operation involved dismantling of the US Navy’s minesweeper and bringing its parts to a US base in Japan which ended on March 29.
The Philippine government fined the US Navy $1.4 million in compensation.
By Barbara Mae Dacanay Bureau Chief
Gulf News 2013. All rights reserved.
