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Wednesday, November 07, 2007
Filipino crew seizes ship over labor complaints
MANILA -- Filipino crewmen who seized a fishing vessel in a mutiny over alleged maltreatment by their Taiwanese captain returned Tuesday to the Indian Ocean nation they sailed from last week, a Philippine official said Tuesday.
A Filipino consular officer from the Philippine Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, has also been sent to Mauritius to ensure the crew is safe while police conduct an investigation into the incident, Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Esteban Conejos said.
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"Something happened in the high seas ... so this will be investigated by the authorities there because this is their first port of call," he said.
Philippine Vice President Noli de Castro said he had spoken with the crew's leader, Roderick Sumang, by satellite telephone and advised him not to harm the captain.
Sumang told The Associated Press that the Filipino crewmen took over the Ruei Chih Fa on Sunday after being overworked and being fed paltry meals. He said the Taiwanese captain, Juiyin Huang, was not bound but was being held in the wheel room. He said the crew had no weapons.
"He was only feeding us porridge once a day and only when we've worked our bodies to extreme fatigue," Sumang said. "We don't have any intention to harm him. We just want to return home."
He said according to arrangements made with Philippine consul Bernadette Mendoza they will be brought to a Catholic church-run mariners' organization.
He said the action they took was not planned but taken at the "spur of the moment, perhaps due to fatigue and hunger."
He said they did not harm the captain and a medical examination would show this.
Sumang, 33, who has a small store in the Manila suburb in Valenzuela, said it was his first time to work as a fisherman on a foreign vessel. He said they were to be paid US$250 (euro173) a month.
Conejos said he was unfamiliar with the laws of Mauritius covering such incidents.
"But we are also looking at it from the angle of a labor dispute in the sense that they said they did this because they not been paid their wages and they were maltreated by their captain," he said. "Let us see."
Sumang said there were nine other Chinese crew on the ship but that they did not take part in the mutiny.
"They did not oppose our action," he said.
The steel-hulled vessel left Port Louis on October 31 for a three-month fishing expedition, Sumang said.
De Castro told said the incident was "unfortunate," and that the crew complained to him they had not been paid for more than a month. (AP)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Pangasinan. (November 7, 2007 issue)
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