MANILA – President Rodrigo Duterte branded the abandonment of 22 Filipino fishermen at Reed Bank in the West Philippine Sea as a “serious” marine incident.
But Duterte said the Chinese crew’s neglect on helpless Filipino fishermen at Reed Bank “is very small because nobody died.”
“‘Yung bungguan? It is a serious (incident),” Duterte said. “Pero when you talk about marine transportation or – it is a maritime incident. And that is very small because nobody died.”
A Chinese vessel struck a Philippine fishing boat anchored near Reed Bank on June 9.
The fishing boat sunk and the Chinese crew abandoned the 22 Filipino fishermen, who were rescued by the Vietnamese.
The Philippine Coast Guard and the Maritime Industry Authority’s report showed the incident was a “very serious marine casualty.”
The report emphasized the Chinese boat’s failure “to take appropriate action to avoid the risk of collision and to render assistance to a vessel in distress.”
Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo said there was no contradiction in the findings of a government report that the sinking was a “serious marine casualty” and Duterte’s description of the same incident as a “little maritime accident.”
“There is no contradiction,” Panelo said.
“In so far as that incident is concerned given the fact that Filipinos were placed in a dangerous situation where they could have been dead, then that’s a serious marine casualty,” he added.
“But when the President said it’s not serious enough to plow it into international crisis, that is what he meant. So both of them are correct,” Panelo said.
Duterte and other Cabinet members were criticized by groups for downplaying the Reed Bank ramming despite repeated insistence that the public should wait for the results of an official investigation before making conclusions./PN
