Taiwan President Ma Ying-Jeou threatened to recall his representative to the Philippines and freeze work applications should its neighbour fail to respond within 72 hours to requests for an apology following the fatal shooting of a fisherman last week.
Mr Ma’s “four solemn requests” include compensation, investigation and punishment of perpetrators, and the commencement of talks over fishing rights, the presidential office said in a statement on its website last night (May 11). Taiwanese fishing vessel Kuang Ta Hsing No. 28 was hit by at least 32 bullets after a Philippine patrol boat on May 9 opened fire 164 nautical miles (304 kilometers) southeast of Taiwan’s southern tip, in waters north of the Philippines.
Taiwan’s ultimatum comes amid heightened tensions over territorial claims in East Asian waters and as the Philippines seeks to cut unemployment. Filipinos are the third-largest foreign group in Taiwan. The Philippines’ overseas workforce accounts for 10 per cent of its gross domestic product.
Failure to respond to Mr Ma’s requests within the timeline, which commenced at midnight, would result in a show of protest that includes halting worker applications, recalling his representative and sending the Philippine representative back home to deal with the issue, according to the statement.
‘HEARTFELT SORROW’
“We express our heartfelt sorrow on the unfortunate situation that occurred during one of the anti-illegal fishing patrols conducted by a Philippine fishery law enforcement vessel,” Abigail Valte, spokeswoman for Philippine President Benigno Aquino, said in an e-mail. She declined on the telephone to comment on Mr Ma’s threat. The commander and crew of the Philippine vessel have been relieved of duty, she said in the e-mail.
China, which considers independently-governed Taiwan, as part of its territory and also lays claim to waters near the Philippines, said on May 10 it’s “deeply concerned about the Philippines’ repeated shooting at unarmed fishermen”. In April last year, Chinese ships blocked the Philippines from inspecting Chinese fishing boats in an area the nation claims.
The Philippines asked the United Nations in January to rule on its maritime disputes with China. A five-member arbitral tribunal was appointed last month and will decide by July if it has jurisdiction, Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario said on April 26.
WATER CANNONS
In January, a Japanese Coast Guard vessel fired water cannons at a Taiwanese boat to keep activists away from asserting sovereignty claims to islands known in Mandarin Chinese as Diaoyu, and in Japanese as Senkaku. Those islands, north-east of Taiwan, are claimed by Taiwan, China and Japan.
Almost 1.7 million overseas Filipinos remit approximately US$20 billion (S$25 billion) back annually, equal to about 10 per cent of GDP, as they struggle to find jobs in their homeland. Philippines’ jobless rate climbed to 7.1 per cent in January from 6.8 per cent the previous month with about 660,000 positions lost since October 2011.
Taiwan had more than 85,000 Filipino residents as of March, 61 per cent of which were female. The Filipinos are the third by nationality behind the Indonesians and the Vietnamese among 485,308 resident foreigners, according to Taiwan’s National Immigration Agency.
Source: BLOOMBERG