(Eagle News) — For Senator Richard Gordon, the issue is not whether or not the hitting by a Chinese vessel of a Filipino fishing boat near Recto Bank was accidental.
According to Gordon, “the issue is people are not supposed to be abandoned at sea,” which means Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang, for him, missed the point.
“The crux of the matter is you left the fishermen in peril of the sea. Under the (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Seas), it is everybody’s duty to rescue people at sea whether it’s peace time or war time regardless of nationality. Whenever there is an incident at sea, the first responsibility is to rescue,” Gordon said.
Gordon said “aside from violating a very tight international rule and tradition,” the Chinese vessel crew’s “action went against human nature.”
He said the “natural law, or the nature or character of human beings,” after all, is to save his fellowman.
“I’m sure many of the Chinese know that when there are people to be saved, they will save them. The Chinese are like us, unless these people are militia, which means that it could compromise the Chinese if they are militia,” he said.
According to the senator, China should not take positions as it may worsen the issue.
Gordon noted that China “admitted that it was a Chinese vessel and that they would investigate and take cognizance.”
He said “then they say that the Chinese vessel was engaged in a light purse seine operation when it was suddenly besieged by 7 or 8 Filipino fishing boats.”
“Sinabi pa nila the Chinese vessel failed to shun a Filipino fishing boat, and its steel cable on the lighting grid of larboard bumped into the Filipino pilothouse. Tapos yung Chinese foreign ministry spokesman maintained that it was an accidental collision between fishing boats at sea. It is not difficult to admit one’s fault,” Gordon said.
He noted that in October 2011, the Philippine Navy quickly apologized to China after one of its warships accidentally rammed a Chinese fishing boat in the West Philippine Sea.
“Stating there were no reports of damage or casualties in the incident, the Philippine government immediately sent an apology to the Chinese embassy in Manila to avoid creating further tension. China could have done this too,” Gordon said.