Taipei has lodged a severe protest against Manila over its enforcement of fishing law in overlapping territorial waters between the two nations where Taiwanese fishing vessels have the right to operate, Minister of Foreign Affairs David Lin (林永樂) said yesterday.
Lin said he hoped the next round of negotiations between the two nations, scheduled to take place next month, would end controversies over fishing rights in the overlapping exclusive economic zones, which also lie in the contiguous area, 12 nautical miles (22km) beyond territorial seas or 24 nautical miles seaward from the baseline of the Philippines.
An agreement on cooperative enforcement of fisheries laws between Taiwan and the Philippines is expected to be signed soon, since both sides have gone through three rounds of negotiations on its content since May 2013, Lin said.
Lin made the remarks when approached for comment yesterday over an incident on Thursday, in which the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) sent a patrol vessel to protect a Pingtung-registered fishing boat, the Sheng Yu Feng, allegedly being chased by a Philippine government vessel in the overlapping waters.
It was the third fishing dispute between the two countries in three weeks, following the one-week detention of the Sheng Feng No. 12 — which was released after paying a US$50,000 fine — on May 7 and the boarding by Philippine law enforcement agents of the Ming Chin Tsai No. 6 on Monday.
The boat was not released until nearly four hours later, when the CGA sent a patrol vessel to intervene.
Taiwan and the Philippines reached a consensus on maritime law enforcement cooperation to avoid a repeat of a fatal incident, in which a Taiwanese fisherman, Hung Shih-cheng (洪石成), was shot and killed on May 9, 2013, when Philippine Coast Guard officers fired on his fishing boat Kuang Ta Hsin No. 28 in the disputed waters.
According to the consensus, both sides have pledged not to use force or violence when patrolling fishing grounds and agreed to inform each other in the event of sea disputes and cooperate in handling the detention and release of fishing crews.
The boarding of Ming Chin Tsai No. 6 has cast doubt on the Philippines’ compliance with the consensus, because Manila failed to inform Taiwan’s fishing authority one hour before it took enforcement action so that the targeted fishing boats could leave the scene, according to the ministry’s report presented to the weekly Cabinet meeting on Thursday.
According to the report, the ministry said that the Philippines promulgated an administrative decree in April last year that excludes the application of the one-hour notification mechanism that both sides agreed upon in its law enforcement within its contiguous waters.
Lin said the ministry expressed its position to the Philippines soon after the promulgation that the unilateral change made to the consensus was not accepted by Taiwan.
“Both sides are still at odds over the scope of law enforcement by respective authorities and we hope the difference can be ironed out in June’s negotiations,” Lin said yesterday.
In Manila, an anonymous Philippine official told the Central News Agency on Thursday that pursuant to the administrative decree, once foreign fishing boats enter its contiguous zone, they are subject to inspection or even detention.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
RSS