Duterte Will Demand Pinoy Fishermen's Right to Livelihood

During China talks, Duterte will demand Filipino fishermen’s right to livelihood

BY LORENZ NIEL SANTOS on SEPTEMBER 25, 2016 in ASIA TIMES NEWS & FEATURES,CHINA, SOUTHEAST ASIA

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte will visit China within the year. While no details are yet known on when this will push through, he said he will insist on the fishing rights of the Philippines in the disputed West Philippine Sea.

A fisherman repairs his boat overlooking fishing boats that fish in the disputed Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea, at Masinloc, Zambales, in the Philippines April 22. REUTERS/Erik De Castro

Filipino fishermen and Chinese Coast Guard are still playing cat and mouse despite the decision of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) that such action by China is illegal.

Part of the decision of The Netherlands-based Arbitral Tribunal is the fact that Scarborough Shoal along with Gaven Reef, McKennan Reef, Johnson Reef, Cuarteron Reef and Fiery Cross Reef are rocks that generate no entitlements to an exclusive economic zone. This means that anybody can go to those areas and exercise their fishing rights without fear of being chased after by Chinese military ships.

“One of the things that I would demand if I go to mainland China is give us back our fishing rights…so our fellow Filipinos can make a living,” said Duterte in a speech during the inauguration of a power plant in Mindanao.

Some sectors have expressed their apprehension that the Arbitral Tribunal might be neglected as Duterte appears to be cozying up to China.

No more fist fight challenge and jet ski ride

 During Duterte’s presidential election campaign, while he said the Philippines cannot afford to go to war with China, it did not stop him from promising that he will reclaim Spratlys Island from China by sheer bravado.

“I will ask the Navy to bring me to the nearest point in South China Sea that is tolerable to them and I will ride a jet ski. I will carry a flag and when I reach Spratlys, I will erect the Philippine flag. I will tell them (Chinese), suntukan o barilan [fistfight or firefight],” said Duterte.

Now, in his more subdued pronouncement, Duterte assured that the Arbitral Tribunal’s decision will not be ignored.

He said the Philippines has to make a stand but conflicts should be resolved by sitting down and talking.

“This piece of paper that we have our award, we do not go out of the four corners of this paper. We cannot go to war. Let’s talk first. Wag tayo magtapang tapangan [We should not be too aggressive],” Duterte said.

The President is confident that China will talk to him.

“It is not territorial. If territorial, we could have killed each other a long time ago. It’s the sovereign entitlement,” he said.

The tough-talking leader appears calculated when talking about China.

He said the Philippines should maintain goodwill with China for a stronger partnership noting that the power plant he inaugurated was partly funded by China.

“Let’s just do business. See, they helped build a power plant. Just imagine if we can get them to help in the years to come,” Duterte said.

According to an analyst, Duterte’s first official foreign visit to China will send a positive signal to the world that the Philippines is ready to repair its injured relationship with China after the Arbitral Tribunal’s ruling.

“I think that would send a very strong signal (on the Philippines’ commitment to establish good foreign relations) but it does not necessarily mean that we are giving up our rights. If properly handled, it could show that we are firm and demonstrate statesmanship by carrying out this kind of gesture,” University of the Philippines Maritime Law Professor Jay Batongbacal said during a press conference following the Arbitral Tribunal’s ruling.

A senior associate justice of the Philippine Supreme Court agrees with Duterte’s approach in dealing with China.

“This dispute should be resolved peacefully,” said Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, one of the staunch supporters of the country’s case against China.

He was part of the team that defended the Philippines’ case in The Netherlands.

Like the Philippines, China was among the countries that ratified the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), Carpio said.

“China agreed to that. That’s why we have used UNCLOS as our vehicle to resolve the dispute because when you ratify UNCLOS, you agreed to be bound by the dispute settlement mechanism…I take that’s what the President meant when he said that [the Philippines] will not go to war…We will not start a war we know we cannot win. Nobody wants war,” he said.

The senior justice said the Philippines has to be creative with its actions.

“We have to push the envelope, we have to negotiate, we have to be creative about this,” said Carpio but admitted that it will take time before the conflict is resolved even with the Arbitral Tribunal ruling.

(Copyright 2016 Asia Times Holdings Limited, a duly registered Hong Kong company. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.)

Concrete Road Brings Hope to Badjau Fisherfolk in Tawi-Tawi

By John Unson (philstar.com) 

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A Badjau seaside village in Bongao, capital of Tawi-Tawi, now linked to the municipal center with a concrete feeder road (right) built by the public works department of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. John Unson

COTABATO CITY, Philippines - Badjau fisherfolks and seaweed growers in the southern coast of Bongao town in Tawi-Tawi now have a concrete road connecting their village of stilt houses to the mainland.

Ethnic Badjaus in Barangay Simandagit could hardly bring their daily catch of assorted fishes, crabs and lobsters to the town market during the rainy days before the 1-kilometer road was built for them by the executive department of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

The road project was a joint initiative of the Department of Public Works and Highways in the autonomous region and the District Engineering Office in Tawi-Tawi, a component province of ARMM.

“We in the regional government are contented with the quality of the road built there by our engineers in the province,” engineer Don Loong, regional secretary of DPWH-ARMM said Tuesday.

Loong, accompanied local officials, inspected last week the newly-built road, constructed as part of the ARMM administration’s confidence-building measures meant to build cordiality with Tawi-Tawi’s Badjau sectors.

Loong said the concrete road was built over what used to be a muddy stretch of a pathway connecting the seaside village to the center of Barangay Simandagit, where there are public transportations that can bring passengers to the town proper.

Rising Number of Trafficked Fishermen in Tawi-Tawi

by Jake Soriano

 

BONGAO, Tawi-Tawi—Tawi-Tawi authorities are alarmed at the growing number of fishermen from the Visayas who end up here after being recruited by human trafficking syndicates to engage in dangerous compressor diving.

The latest case involves 13 fishermen rescued from a fishing village here on March 15 by a team composed of the Tawi-Tawi Provincial Police Office (PPO), Philippine Marines and the Bongao Inter-agency Task Force Against Trafficking in Persons (BIATFAT).

The case is the eighth recorded by BIATFAT since December 2012, and brings the total number of rescued fishermen to 80, all of them from Cebu and Bohol.

 

 

 

Not just a backdoor transit point, Tawi-Tawi is also a destination for human trafficking victims.

“They have taken a huge risk in accepting compressor diving work here,” said Inspector Elmira Relox, chief of the Tawi-Tawi PPO Women and Children Protection Desk, who led the rescue.

Compressor diving, a dangerous deep-sea fishing method, requires the fishermen to dive into the water without any gear, except for a plastic hose attached to an air pump on the surface. The diver inhales air through the hose when deep underwater.

Police said compressor diving killed one fisherman and incapacitated another. The casualties, both of who had been recruited along with the 13 rescued fishermen, were not identified.

The rescued fishermen told police they started working for a certain Nelson Mohammad in September 2013, with the contract supposed to expire last February.

Mohammad, however, reportedly detained them in his residence after they complained of unfair pay and refused to extend their contract. He also claimed the fishermen still owed him money he had advanced to them in Cebu and their transportation expenses going to Tawi-Tawi.

Police said one of the fishermen escaped by swimming in the shallow waters off the edge of Bongao island and alerted the local authorities to the group’s situation.

Prosecutor Ivy Damayo of the Sea-based Anti-trafficking Task Force said hundreds more fishermen are trapped in dire working conditions on the islands.

The 13 rescued fishermen are from Lapu-Lapu City. The youngest is 19, the oldest 48.

“They were exploited and harassed by their employers,” Relox said.

According to police, fishermen from Cebu and Bohol are lured by recruiters who are known or related to them.

These recruiters advance the fishermen a portion of the promised salary ranging from P10,000 to P15,000 to get them to agree to work in Tawi-Tawi usually on a six-month contract. The fishermen are also promised a share of the profit from the catch.

But the agreements are made only orally. Once in Tawi-Tawi, the deep-sea divers are left to the mercy of their employers, and the promises forgotten.

BIATFAT focal person Rosabella Sulani said the fishermen usually work from 3 p.m. until 7 the next morning.

When their contracts are about to expire, the fishermen are told they still owe their employers money and they would have to stay to be able to pay their debts. The victims, therefore, get caught in a vicious cycle of debt bondage, Sulani said.

 

 

Fishing is a leading source of livelihood in Tawi-Tawi.

 

Fishermen are also regularly threatened with violence, according to police. Their employers usually carry firearms and claim to have a network of contacts among the local authorities in Tawi-Tawi.

Mohammad managed to evade capture when local authorities raided his residence to rescue the 13 fishermen and, according to Sulani, has become the newest addition to the growing list of suspects behind the trafficking of fishermen from Cebu and Bohol to Tawi-Tawi.

He is the first to be identified operating in Languyan town near Bongao, capital of Tawi-Tawi, said Sulani.

The victims told police that Mohammad lives in Sama-Kasulutan in Simandagit, Bongao, reputedly a den for lawless elements, including members of the Abu Sayyaf. He is known to carry firearms, and once fired a gun in the air when he got mad at his employees.

One of the rescued fishermen told police that Mohammad also claims to be well connected to law enforcement officials in Tawi-Tawi.

Three other suspects identified by Sulani allegedly employing compressor divers in the island municipalities of Sibutu and Sitangkai are Anthony Jumat and the brothers “Ugly” and Jimmy Haibit.

BIATFAT records of Bongao cases referred to Zamboanga City show that Jimmy Haibit was charged with human trafficking on July 16, 2013. The case is awaiting resolution.

Also charged was Policarpio “Paul” Mantos, who reportedly recruits fishermen from Cebu and Bohol.

BIATFAT, meanwhile, referred on Jan. 29 a trafficking case against Jumat to the Zamboanga City Prosecutor’s Office. Task force officials said Jumat is also known as a notorious drug pusher in Tawi-Tawi and that he allegedly works with recruiter Jefferson Daño.

Last Sept. 5, BIATFAT rescued a fisherman from Bohol who said as payment for the amount given to him in advance in Bohol, Jumat made him peddle the illegal drug methamphetamine hydrochloride, also known as shabu.

Sulani said some fishermen are forced to use “shabu” to combat tough sea conditions, particularly the extreme cold at night.

No cases have been filed against Mohammad, his recruiter, identified as Eduardo Tumulak, and “Ugly” Haibit. They are at large.

The Tawi-Tawi PPO and the BIATFAT turned over the 13 rescued fishermen to authorities in Zamboanga, who in turn facilitated their return to Cebu.

Relox said catching the employers and recruiters remains a problem for the police. “They are just too good,” she said, referring to human traffickers’ skills at evading authorities.

While many victims have been rescued, only a few are interested in pursuing cases, Damayo said. Among the 80 rescued, she said, “only about three are interested” in legal action against their former employers and recruiters.

(This story is part of VERA Files' project “Human Trafficking Casewatch” supported by the U.S. Embassy's Small Grants Facility and the Embassy of Canada. VERA Files is put out by senior journalists taking a deeper look at current issues. VERA is Latin for true.)