Cooperative

In the last several days, the exchange of angry recriminations over the killing of a Taiwanese fisherman in Philippine waters has given way to a flurry of bureaucratic activity—and the sound of government officials on both sides of the dispute working at something necessary is welcome. A “cooperative” investigation is underway, allowing an eight-member team from the National Bureau of Investigation to probe the circumstances behind the death of 65-year-old fisherman Hung Shih-chen in Taiwan, with a roughly equal number of investigators from Taipei conducting their own probe in the Philippines.

“All the [investigative] activities will be based on reciprocity,” Andrew Lin of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office, Taiwan’s de facto embassy, explained. “What we render to the Philippine team in Taiwan, the same will be offered to us.”

The existence of a video taken of the encounter, which Justice Secretary Leila de Lima once described as “very revealing,” was initially a crux of contention, but the other day the Taiwanese investigators were allowed to view it. “Everything that is with us will be offered to them,” NBI Deputy Director Virgilio Mendez told reporters. The decision led Taipei to finally issue visas to the NBI agents.

Chen Wen-chi, head of Taiwan’s International Cross-Straits Legal Affairs office, said she did not expect the work of both investigative teams to differ dramatically: no “major difference in the findings because we are looking at the same evidence.” She added, in an effort to manage public expectations: “There is no deadline and the investigators will bring here the evidence they collected, like the slugs. The investigation will take time.”

It should have been like this from the start, soon after the unfortunate incident occurred on May 9. But a deeply unpopular administration in Taipei rode the tiger of outraged public opinion, and began clawing at Manila. Even before launching its own investigation, the Taiwanese government imposed economic sanctions on its neighbor, conducted naval exercises right off the Luzon coast, abetted dangerous crowd behavior against Filipinos working in Taiwan—and demanded an official apology from the Philippines.

Even today, an official like Chen can still say: “Our demands remain the same and we insist on the punishment of those who shot the boat.”

What if, as the Coast Guard crew of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources vessel maintains, the Taiwanese fishing boat was in Philippine waters, and did act in a hostile manner? What if the boat which Hung’s son steered did attempt to ram the BFAR craft? Should those who “shot the boat” still be punished?  (A much-viewed “video” presentation of the Taiwanese case against the Philippines, available on YouTube, makes much of the fact that the Taiwanese boat was undented, conveniently forgetting a key detail in the Coast Guard account: The ramming was attempted, but not completed.)

In other words, the possibility that the Taiwanese fishing boat was just one of hundreds of similar boats who poach on Philippine waters, as the Coast Guard crew maintains, should not be discounted, especially by the Taiwanese. A BBC story out of Taipei reports the numbers:

“Taiwan’s Fisheries Agency estimates that in the past three decades, there have been 108 incidents of Taiwan’s fishing boats being stopped, fined or confiscated or crews detained for six months to a year by Filipino authorities.

“Fines imposed on the crews have ranged from $50,000 … to $60,000, according to the agency. The actual numbers are believed to be higher because some cases are settled without being reported to Taiwan’s authorities.”

In other words, the problem has existed for decades. Does the Ma Ying-jeou administration think it can solve this problem simply by brandishing arms and imposing sanctions? Manila has been a staunch friend of Taipei’s for a long time, despite official adoption of the so-called One China policy. And Taipei knows that incidents like the May 9 encounter—unfortunate because of the loss of life—will always happen; why try to bully your neighbor when diplomacy, even of the indirect kind, has been proven to work again and again? The sound of officials working away on both sides of a cooperative investigation is yet more proof of that.