Family members of the Taiwanese fisherman who was shot dead during an incident involving a Philippine government vessel last week demanded that Manila provide evidence of its claim that the Taiwanese ship was at fault and had provoked the incident.
On May 9, the Taiwanese boat, Kuang Ta Hsing No. 28, was strafed by a joint patrol of the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) and the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources. The 65-year-old Hung Shih-cheng (洪石成) was shot dead in the incident.
The shooting took place 164 nautical miles (304km) southeast of Taiwan’s southernmost tip in waters in the overlapping exclusive economic zones of Taiwan and the Philippines.
The PCG’s incident report claimed the Kuang Ta Hsing No. 28 attempted to ram the coast guard ship and escape, forcing it to open fire and give chase.
Hung Shih-cheng’s son, Hung Yu-chih (洪育智), the captain of the Taiwanese vessel, on Friday rebutted the claim, saying that as his ship was small and made of fiberglass, it would have been ridiculous for it to attempt to ram the Philippine government boat.
“No definitive statements have been made by Manila, who initially said that we rammed their coast guard ship and then claimed we hit a buoy,” Hung Yu-chih said.
He added that according to Taiwanese prosecutors, “we were not in Philippine territorial waters. Manila should provide evidence if it disagrees with Taiwan’s findings.”
According to the Pingtung County Prosecutor’s Office, the Kuang Ta Hsing No. 28’s voyage data recorder (VDR) recorded the ship’s location, course and speed on May 9, adding that the location of the Philippine Coast Guard’s ship was not available.
There were no signs of damage on the fishing ship’s hull to back up Manila’s claims, the prosecutor said, calling for Manila to make public footage recorded when it conducted an investigation of the coast guard ship to shed light on the matter.
Commenting on Philippine media reports on Friday which described the PCG’s report of the May 9 shooting as “like a scene out of an action movie” in which the Philippine vessel was “dodging two fishing boats that tried to sink the law enforcer’s ship as they engaged the ‘bad guys’ in a high seas chase,” Hung Shih-cheng’s daughter Hung Tzu-chien (洪慈綪) asked: “How are the Philippine coast guards’ actions different from Somalian pirates? Can we not call them pirates for killing people on the sea? Firing 57 shots is called ‘unintended?’”
Pingtung County Councilor Lu Tung-hsieh (盧同協) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), meanwhile, criticized the Philippine government and said Manila would not let any video that would embarrass Taiwanese authorities remain under wraps if it had such footage.
“The video would have been released if the Taiwanese vessel had instigated the incident,” Lu said.
“Manila is attempting to sway international opinion in its favor by shifting the blame onto our shoulders,” Lu said.
Lu added that the Taiwanese government, backed by the full support of the people, should demand and receive a satisfactory response from the Philippine government or else President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration would be regarded as weak on the international stage.
FINAL COUNTDOWN: About 50,000 attended a pro-recall rally yesterday, while the KMT and the TPP plan to rally against the recall votes today Democracy activists, together with arts and education representatives, yesterday organized a motorcade, while thousands gathered on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei in the evening in support of tomorrow’s recall votes. Recall votes for 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers and suspended Hsinchu City mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) are to be held tomorrow, while recall votes for seven other KMT lawmakers are scheduled for Aug. 23. The afternoon motorcade was led by the Spring Breeze Culture and Arts Foundation, the Tyzen Hsiao Foundation and the Friends of Lee Teng-hui Association, and was joined by delegates from the Taiwan Statebuilding Party and the Taiwan Solidarity
‘NON-RED’: Taiwan and Ireland should work together to foster a values-driven, democratic economic system, leveraging their complementary industries, Lai said President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday expressed hopes for closer ties between Taiwan and Ireland, and that both countries could collaborate to create a values-driven, democracy-centered economic system. He made the remarks while meeting with an Irish cross-party parliamentary delegation visiting Taiwan. The delegation, led by John McGuinness, deputy speaker of the Irish house of representatives, known as the Dail, includes Irish lawmakers Malcolm Byrne, Barry Ward, Ken O’Flynn and Teresa Costello. McGuinness, who chairs the Ireland-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Association, is a friend of Taiwan, and under his leadership, the association’s influence has grown over the past few years, Lai said. Ireland is
An SOS message in a bottle has been found in Ireland that is believed to have come from the Taiwanese captain of fishing vessel Yong Yu Sing No. 18 (永裕興18號), who has been missing without a trace for over four years, along with nine Indonesian crew members. The vessel, registered to Suao (蘇澳), went missing near Hawaii on Dec. 30, 2020. The ship has since been recovered, but the 10 crew members have never been found. The captain, surnamed Lee (李), is believed to have signed the note with his name. A post appeared on Reddit on Tuesday after a man
Instead of threatening tariffs on Taiwan-made chips, the US should try to reinforce cooperation with Taiwan on semiconductor development to take on challenges from the People’s Republic of China (PRC), a Taiwanese think tank said. The administration of US President Donald Trump has threatened to impose across-the-board import duties of 32 percent on Taiwan-made goods and levy a separate tariff on semiconductors, which Taiwan is hoping to avoid. The Research Institute for Democracy, Society, and Emerging Technology (DSET), a National Science and Technology Council think tank, said that US efforts should focus on containing China’s semiconductor rise rather than impairing Taiwan. “Without
RSS