Philippines, Taiwan in Simmering Dispute

The tensions between the Philippines and Taiwan continues to rise, a week after the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) officer shot dead a Taiwanese fisherman for allegedly entering the territorial waters of the Philippines at the northern part of the archipelago.

While the whole nation is very busy with the ongoing elections last Monday, May 13, 2013 the incident that took place Friday, May 09 of the same year escaped from the lenses of the cameras of the local media. The story only came out on the television reports in the Philippines the day after the national election was successfully held. However, this was not yet given focus as many Filipinos are more interested to know who will be the next 12 senators that will lead their country. In the mean time, local media in Taiwan and Mainland China have already releases several reports that were accusing the Philippine Navy as the responsible body over the killing of the said fishermen. But the Philippine Navy immediately denied the accusation, saying that they don’t have any ship in the area when the shooting incident occurred. Later on, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) admitted the shooting but insisted that the act was just a self-defense. They said that a chase ensued for more than four (4) hours happened before the shooting incident takes place after one of the four (4) Taiwanese fishing vessels tried to ram their boat when they were attempting to board one of the vessels. Several shots were made by the coast guard using its on-board machine gun to disable the machinery of one of the fishing boats. Unfortunately, one of the bullets hit the neck of 65-year old Mr. Huang Shih-Cheng who was staying in the engine room and died.

News Agencies reports from both Taiwan and China have showed that the shooting incident occurred 43 nautical miles east of Balintang Island and 164 – 180 nautical miles from the nearest coastline of Taiwan.

Based on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) any Island nation is allowed to claim Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) that extends 200 nautical miles out from a nation’s territorial sea. This is what the Taiwan Government is keep on insisting as the Philippine Authorities claimed that the four Taiwanese fishing boats entered the EEZ of the Philippines. However, since Taiwan is not recognized by most of the countries around the world as an independent nation, it is not a signatory of the UNCLOS where in the Philippines adheres as a signatory. Read More at Agora Business Intelligence...