IMAGINE yourself driving down a dark road. Suddenly, seven or eight motorcycles circle your car in a manner you believed to be threatening.
You evade the motorcycles but, in the process, hit one of them. You don’t stop to help. You leave for fear the other persons on motorcycles would run after you.
That may have happened on some road somewhere and at some time. But can it happen at sea? Since fishing boats are usually heavy and do not run as fast as motorcycles, there should be ways to avoid hitting the other.
But that was how the Chinese embassy in Manila explained what happened in the boat-ramming incident on June 9, 2019. The embassy statement said the Yuemaobinyu 42212, a Chinese fishing boat from Guangdong Province, China, engaged in a light purse seine operation, was berthed at the vicinity of Liyue Tan (Reed Bank) of the Nansha Qundao. “It was suddenly besieged by seven or eight Filipino fishing boats. During evacuation, Yuemaobinyu 42212 failed to shun a Filipino fishing boat, and its steel cable on the lighting grid of larboard bumped into the Filipino pilothouse. The Filipino fishing boat tilted and its stern foundered,” the statement said.
It added that the captain of Yuemaobinyu 42212 tried to rescue the Filipino fishermen, “but was afraid of being besieged by other Filipino fishing boats.”
“Therefore, having confirmed the fishermen from the Filipino boat were rescued on board of other Filipino fishing boats, Yuemaobinyu 42212 sailed away from the scene. The above shows that there is no such thing as ‘hit-and-run,’” it said.
The Chinese embassy’s version was immediately denied by the Filipino fishermen who were on board the vessel, the Gem-Vir 1. Contrary to the Chinese government claims, they said they were rescued by a Vietnamese boat, not by Filipino boats.
Even Vice Admiral Robert Empedrad, Philippine Navy chief, said the incident was not a “normal incident.” A Philippine Star report quoted Empedrad as saying the Filipino vessel was anchored and, based on the International Rules of the Road, “it had the privilege because it could not evade.”
The ship was rammed, the Navy chief said.
The ramming was the first insult to Filipinos, as analysts pointed out the incident could be part of the Chinese attempt to be aggressive in order to discourage Philippine presence in an offshore region believed to be rich in undersea gas and oil deposits.
The second insult was in blaming the seven or eight Filipino vessels for “besieging” the Chinese vessel while it was berthed during a light purse seine operation. Adding insult to injury, the Chinese vessel did not rescue the Filipino fishermen for fear it would be “besieged” (that word, again) by the other Filipino fishing boats.
It’s a double insult, requiring a double sanction. A Cabinet meeting called on Monday to discuss what united stand to take on the issue ended up without any decision or action. This is not the time to dillydally.