Brothers and sisters, on the day of our independence or Araw ng Kalayaan celebrations, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana shared news of a collision between fishing vessels in the Recto Bank within the West Philippine Sea. A boat manned by Filipino fishermen—the Philippine vessel FB Gimver 1—and a Chinese fishing vessel allegedly collided. Unfortunately, the boat of the Filipino fishermen sank. It was said that the collision was intentional because our fellowmen’s boat was anchored when the incident occurred.
There are two issues in this story.
First, it is clear that the Chinese vessel was inside the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of the Philippines. The foreigners are in an area rich with natural resources like fish, oil and gas deposits. But it is not new for China to violate provisions of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea or Unclos. Three years have passed since the UN Tribunal issued its decision on our inquiry on China’s claims in the West Philippine Sea, but until now, China still doesn’t recognize this decision.
The Chinese still continue to explore our water resources and sometimes even prevent Filipino fishermen from fishing within our EEZ. Three years have passed but China continues to violate the sovereign right of the Filipinos in the West Philippine Sea.
The second and more worrying issue: The Chinese abandoned the Filipino fishermen after ramming their boat. According to the news, the Chinese hastened their desertion from where the incident occurred and left 22 Filipino fishermen in their sunken ship. This prompted Secretary Lorenzana to call for a formal investigation, as well as appropriate diplomatic actions, to prevent this kind of incident from recurring. According to Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo, whatever the reason of this incident, the Chinese should have prioritized helping the Filipino fishermen. Such negligence was a clear violation of the international maritime protocol to help distressed vessels and the people stranded in the ocean. The responsibility of saving lives at sea is contained in the Unclos, which said that it is the duty of captains of ships from any country to help anyone in need—without prejudice, friend or foe.
Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said the act was intentional. It wasn’t “ramming” that occurred, but an allision—an occurrence where one mobile ship strikes a stationed boat.
If the China-Philippines relations are truly good, why didn’t those aboard the Chinese vessel try to save the Filipino fishermen? It was only a relief that there were Vietnamese fishing vessels near the place where the incident occurred and they helped our fishermen.
The Church may not have any particular social teaching about saving people whose lives are in danger at sea, but there are concrete examples that give value to life. In January, Pope Francis drove the leaders across Europe to help the migrants left at sea after being denied entry by Italy and Malta. The message of the Church is to help anyone whose life is in peril, whoever they may be.
Brothers and sisters, how many incidents like the collision in Recto Bank must occur for us to wake up to the truth that we are being harmed in our own yard? It was not an ordinary collision that occurred, and the government must take the necessary action to protect its citizens.
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