Beijing tells PH to free Chinese fishers arrested for poaching off Palawan, return boat
By:
Reuters
May 7, 2014 2:03 PM
MANILA - (UPDATE3 - 6:36 p.m.)
The Philippines' Department of Foreign Affairs signalled Wednesday it was not heeding an appeal by China's foreign ministry to hand back a Chinese fishing boat and its crew seized by Philippines police for poaching in disputed waters in the South China Sea.
The Philippines should stop taking provocative actions, ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a daily news briefing.
The DFA in Manila defended the acts of the officials who apprehended the crew and seized the boat and the marine shipment, adding in a statement that Philippine authorities in Palawan “will address this case in a just, humane and expeditious manner.”
The DFA stressed that the “
seizing of the Chinese fishing boat, carrying large numbers of endangered species, and the apprehension of its crew by the Philippine National Police Maritime Group Special Boat Unit were undertaken as actions to enforce maritime laws and to uphold Philippine sovereign rights over its EEZ.”
Maritime police arrested a Chinese fishing boat with 11 crewmen and a haul of about 500 turtles off a disputed shoal in the Spratly Islands but within the Philippines' exclusive economic zone, a senior official said on Wednesday.
The Chinese fishing boat was intercepted off Half Moon Shoal on Tuesday, said Chief Superintendent Noel Vargas, head of the Philippine National Police maritime group.
"The fishing boat is now being towed to Palawan where appropriate charges will be filed against them," Vargas said.
The shoal is some 100 kilometers from southwestern Palawan.
Beijing tells PH to free Chinese fishers arrested for poaching off Palawan, return boat