A belated but welcome win

It took nearly three years for 22 Filipino fishermen from San Jose, Occidental Mindoro, to get justice after a Chinese vessel rammed and sank their fishing boat in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) at midnight on June 9, 2019.

“I confirm that there has been a final settlement of the damage claims of the Gem-Ver fishermen against the owners of the Chinese vessel,” Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said on Thursday.

The final compensation was P6 million, to be paid by the operator of the Chinese vessel Yuemaobinyu 42212 to Gem-Ver 1 owner Felix dela Torre and the boat’s fishing crew. The amount is a pittance, considering the damage and disruption that the unprovoked attack brought upon the hapless fishermen. In September 2020, the Department of Justice submitted to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) the fishermen’s original demand for P12 million in “total estimated civil damages” to cover the repair of the boat, their lost income for six months, and moral damages.

The 14-ton fishing boat was anchored at Recto (Reed) Bank, about 275 kilometers west of El Nido, Palawan, well within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the WPS, when the Chinese trawler rammed it. The Chinese vessel then abandoned the fishermen as they struggled to stay afloat on the high seas. A passing Vietnamese boat rescued them two hours later.

The incident left the fishermen without a livelihood for a long time, with the COVID-19 pandemic aggravating their plight. Since then, the boat owner and its crew have reportedly had a falling out while their quest for justice dragged on.

While much delayed and barely half of the original amount, the compensation may be regarded as a just closure to the most violent incident of Chinese aggression under the China-friendly administration of President Duterte. After all, with Mr. Duterte’s official policy of not challenging Chinese intrusions in the West Philippine Sea, one could hardly expect victories to come the way of small Filipino fishermen routinely shooed off their traditional fishing grounds by the Chinese bullies.

Recall that at the outset, the President shrugged off the attack as a “little maritime incident” and warned “politicians” against exploiting the latest cause of outrage against Chinese incursions in the country’s EEZ. His response may have emboldened the Chinese embassy to misrepresent what happened, saying in its first statement that the Chinese vessel was “besieged by seven or eight Filipino fishing boats,” an absurd claim denied by the Gem-Ver 1 captain. It was the private Guangdong Fishery Mutual Insurance Association that acknowledged the “accident” and issued an apology, apparently to downplay the row in time for Mr. Duterte’s visit to China. The association wrote to the Philippine embassy in Beijing, encouraging the Philippines to ask for compensation.

The negotiations for the compensation started only two years after the incident, underscoring the government’s lukewarm stance on confronting China despite its habitual disregard for Philippine sovereignty.

For all the side stories and public posturing behind the belated compensation, consider it a moral victory for the aggrieved Filipino fishermen that is worth celebrating.

At the same time, one wonders if the compensation is part of China’s efforts to demonstrate good faith and win the support of the new leaders bound to be elected in the May 9 elections. After all, what’s to stop the next administration from fully enforcing the historic 2016 ruling of the arbitral tribunal in The Hague that junked China’s sweeping claim over in the resource-rich South China Sea, including parts of the Philippines’ EEZ?

In what may well be another pushback against Chinese incursions in our territory, the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) ordered last week the pullout from cinemas of the Hollywood action movie “Uncharted.’’ The DFA had asked the MTRCB to pull out the movie for a scene showing China’s nine-dash line, which encroaches on the WPS, saying it was “contrary to national interest.” By the time the MTRCB made its decision, however, the movie’s screening in local cinemas had ended.

Still, it is to the DFA’s credit that it had lodged the required diplomatic protests over the swarming of Chinese navy and fishing vessels in the WPS, despite Mr. Duterte’s defeatist stance and decision to shelve the Hague ruling.

The victory of the Gem-Ver 1 fishermen should set another precedent to reinforce the country’s territorial rights in the WPS. It should serve as deterrent as well to Chinese vessels that aggressively push out and put the lives of Filipino fishermen at risk. By choosing the right leaders in the coming elections, this victory can be cemented into official policy, and change in the one-sided China-Philippine relations may be on the horizon at last.