China Seeks Release of 12 fishermen in Philippines
12 Chinese Fishermen to Remain in Detention
By Redempto D. Anda
Philippine Daily Inquirer/Asia News Network
Friday, Apr 12, 2013
PUERTO PRINCESA CITY-Let them go. Forgive and forget. This was the gist of what two ranking officials of the Chinese Embassy in Manila on Thursday were asking in trying to secure the immediate release of 12 Chinese fishermen accused of poaching in the Tubbataha Reef in the Sulu Sea.
But they were snubbed by marine park and defence officials.
Instead of listening to Consul General Shen Zicheng and Third Secretary Li Jian, officials of the Tubbataha Management Office proceeded to file bribery charges against the 12 Chinese fishermen, who were arraigned in a court here on Wednesday on charges of poaching.
Shen and Li arrived here on Tuesday and sought a meeting with marine park supervisor Angelique Songco, but were "quietly turned down," according to a member of the Tubbataha Management Board.
The two Chinese diplomats refused to talk to reporters and returned to Manila on Thursday, said the board member, who requested anonymity for not having authorisation to discuss the matter with journalists.
An official at the military's Western Command (Wescom) here said the two Chinese officials tried to convince local defence authorities in a meeting on Wednesday to pardon the fishermen because their presence in Tubbataha, a protected marine sanctuary, was "unintentional."
"They tried to convince us that this was all an accident and they did not intend to be there," the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said.
The fishermen have been in detention here since their arrest by park rangers who found their vessel, the 48-meter Ming Long Yu, jammed onto the northern atoll of the world-famous marine sanctuary, 1,600 kilometers from China's nearest major landmass.