By Jaime Laude
The Philippine Star
The Philippine Star
MANILA, Philippines – The government has expressed concern over last Wednesday’s incident in the disputed Spratly Islands wherein a Chinese warship chased the utility boat of the Kalayaan island town for almost one hour.
“Our national government is concerned on the latest incident,” re-elected Kalayaan Mayor Eugenio Bito-onon said after he reported to higher authorities the alleged bullying by a Chinese warship of their boat M/T Queen Seagull.
Malacañang and the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) have asked for a full and official report on the matter from the Palawan-based Western Command (Wescom).
M/T Queen Seagull, a 40-meter supply and utility boat of Kalayaan town, was ferrying 133 Kalayaan islanders and 14 crewmembers back to Palawan from Pag-Asa Island in the Spratly archipelago, following the conduct of the midterm elections.
Bito-onon said the Chinese warship started chasing the Queen Seagull when their boat was passing by Ayungin Reef at around midnight Wednesday.
He said on several occasions the Chinese vessel sailed toward the Queen Seagull, and came so close as if the warship was poised to ram the boat.
The Chinese warship, with its floodlights directed at the Queen Seagull, also maneuvered left and right in apparent attempts to get the Philippine boat to sail toward shallow waters and be grounded.
“I was just thankful that most of our passengers were asleep. It could have triggered a major incident (if the passengers would panic),” Bito-onon said.
He added that even the skipper of the Queen Seagull and his assistant, both seasoned sailors, panicked when the Chinese warship conducted a ship-side maneuver toward the left when the Queen Seagull was passing by a reef to the right.
Bito-onon said he could only surmise that the Chinese warship is an escort vessel of two larger Chinese ships now anchored within the general vicinity of Ayungin Reef.
“With her powerful floodlights trained on our boat, our skipper and our guards were blinded from seeing what type of Chinese warship that harassed us. But it was a harrowing experience,” Bito-onon said.
Located halfway between Pag-Asa Island and Palawan, Ayungin Reef is being guarded by Filipino troops on board a grounded Philippine Navy cargo ship, BRP Sierra Madre.
- – - – - – - – - – - – - – -
RELATED STORY:
Two foreign ships ‘harass’ Filipino vessel near Ayungin reef but incident ‘normal,’ mayor says
By Abigail C. Kwok in Manila, Elmer Badilla in Puerto Princesa
InterAksyon.com
InterAksyon.com
Soldiers at Ayungin Reef.
(Updated 5:38 p.m.) A re-elected mayor of an island being claimed by both the Philippines and China was tailed and harassed by two unidentified patrol vessels while on the way back to mainland Palawan.
While onboard the vessel MV Queen Seagull, Mayor Eugenio Bito-onon Jr. of the Municipality of Kalayaan said they were passing through the Ayungin Shoal on their way to Balabac town when a “navy ship” tailed them and trained a search light on them.
“Yung isa 30-40 meters away from us. Yung isa medyo malayo na. Ayun pinailawan kami ng napakalakas na search light kumbaga mula ulo hanggang paa. Akala ata may mga dala kaming armas,” Bito-onon told Interaksyon.
(The first one was 30 to 40 meters away from us. The other was located at a distance. The first trained a powerful search light on us, as if we were being examined from head to foot. They thought that we carried arms.)
The Mayor also said that they were tailed for about an hour until they have reached some distance from the shoal.
But Bito-onon, who was onboard the vessel at the time of the incident, said this was “normal” for him and residents of Kalayaan Island and was unfazed by the incident.
Bito-onon said he was travelling with 146 others en route to Balabac Island from Kalayaan Island after being re-elected as mayor past midnight of May 15 when they were tailed by a foreign vessel.
The incident occurred near Ayungin Reef, some 176 nautical miles from mainland Palawan.
“Tulog ako eh, naikwento lang ng mga kasama ko. Hinabol daw kami for about an hour until we passed by Ayungin where a big unidentified boat is anchored. At close range wala silang nakitang numero kasi ang lakas ng spotlight nila…wala naman silang ginawa sa amin except sinundan lang kami,” Bito-onon said.
(I was asleep at that time and it was just narrated to me by my companions. We were supposedly chased for an hour until we passed by Ayungin. My companions were unable to see any number or markings that would identify the ship because its spotlight was so bright and powerful. But they didn’t do us any harm. Except that they just tailed us.)
He said another unidentified ship was anchored off Ayungin and trained its searchlight on them when their vessel passed by.
The ship that was tailing them was unable to catch up with their vessel but followed them for an hour, Bito-onon said.
Most of the Filipino ship’s crew was asleep at the time and his narration was based on accounts of his crew who were awake at the time, he said.
Asked if the ship them could have been from the Philippine Navy, Bito-onon said: “Walang ganung kabilis na barko natin. Barko ng China tumatakbo ng 40 knots mahigit eh, seven times faster ng lantsa namin, tumatakbo kami ng seven knots.”
(There are no Philippine ships that travel as fast as that. Chinese vessels run as much as 40 knots an hour, seven times faster than our boat which only runs seven knots an hour.)
But the mayor dismissed the incident as a normal occurrence.
“Sanay na kami diyan. Hindi naman kami sinasaktan, wala naman silang ginagawa sa amin so kumbaga posture-posture lang, puro pagbibida lang,” Bito-onon said.
(We’re used to that. After all, they’re not hurting us–they’re just showing off.)
He further revealed that a foreign ship often passed near Kalayaan Island, probably from the Chinese coast guard.
Bito-onon also confirmed that there is a “big naval ship” anchored on Ayungin shoal as earlier reported by InterAksyon.com but denied by Western Command.
Ellaine Martir, election officer of Kalayaan separately told InterAksyon.com that they also spotted a “fishing fleet” in the area on their way to conduct elections in the island while aboard a nomad aircraft of the Philippine Air Force.
No comments:
Post a Comment