The Philippine Coast Guard’s excessive use of force against an unarmed Taiwanese fishing boat, which resulted in the death of a Taiwanese fisherman, should be classified as an “extra-judicial and inhumane killing,” the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the US said yesterday in an international press release.
“Extra-judicial killings, such as in this case, have been an ongoing human rights issue in the Philippines. International focus on the issue reached such a high level of concern that the US House of Representatives sent a staff delegation to Manila in 2007 to fully vet the issue with Philippine government officials,” the press release said.
The press release was the first issued by the representative office in English since a joint patrol of the Philippine Coast Guard and the Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources sprayed bullets at the unarmed Taiwanese fishing boat, the Kuang Ta Hsing No. 28, while it operated in the two countries’ overlapping economic zones on May 9.
The shooting resulted in the death of 65-year-old Hung Shih-cheng (洪石成) and left the boat riddled with 45 bullet holes.
Amid growing indignation among Taiwanese over the deadly shooting, the representative office has made known to international media the details regarding the incident, as well as the Taiwanese government’s stance on the shooting and its dismissal of the Philippines’ description of the incident as “an unintended loss of life.”
The press release attached an illustration showing that the Philippine government vessel was about six times that of the Taiwanese fishing boat, rebutting the Philippines’ claims that the shots were fired in self-defense after the Taiwanese boat had tried to ram it.
A joint investigation mechanism should be established in accordance with the Mutual Legal Assistance Agreement signed between Taipei and Manila earlier this year, the press release said, quoting President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) as saying that he believed “the incident requires both sides to cooperate with each other on the investigation pragmatically, and only by doing so can the truth be revealed.”
Citing a high-profile case involving the disappearance of US high-school student Natalee Holloway on the Dutch Caribbean island of Aruba in 2005, the press release said that the Dutch and Aruban authorities quickly agreed to bring the FBI and other US officials into the investigation in an effort to avoid potential adverse effects on bilateral relations after the case became a media sensation in the US.
“Taiwan is asking for no more than this — a joint investigation. It’s a serious human rights issue and there is no legal problem for Taiwan and the Philippines to jointly conduct the investigation,” the press release said.
The press release also urged Manila to start fishery talks with Taipei to avoid recurrence of such incidents, as has been demanded by the Ma administration, and to refrain from using its “one China” policy as an excuse for not issuing an apology.
The Ma administration has laid out four demands in response to the shooting — that Manila issue a formal apology, compensate Hung’s family, investigate the incident to identify and punish the perpetrators and initiate negotiations on a bilateral fisheries agreement.
However, because the Philippines has failed to satisfactorily fulfill the demands, the Taiwanese government has frozen Philippine worker applications, recalled the Republic of China representative to Manila and suspended economic exchanges, among other sanctions.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
Former Taiwan People’s Party chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) may apply to visit home following the death of his father this morning, the Taipei Detention Center said. Ko’s father, Ko Cheng-fa (柯承發), passed away at 8:40am today at the Hsinchu branch of National Taiwan University Hospital. He was 94 years old. The center said Ko Wen-je was welcome to apply, but declined to say whether it had already received an application. The center also provides psychological counseling to people in detention as needed, it added, also declining to comment on Ko Wen-je’s mental state. Ko Wen-je is being held in detention as he awaits trial
RSS