Bullying by Sino ship alarms gov’t

MANILA, Philippines - The government has expressed concern over last Wednesday’s incident in the disputed Spratly Islands wherein a Chinese warship chased the utility boat of the Kalayaan island town for almost one hour.

“Our national government is concerned on the latest incident,” re-elected Kalayaan Mayor Eugenio Bito-onon said after he reported to higher authorities the alleged bullying by a Chinese warship of their boat M/T Queen Seagull.

Malacañang and the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) have asked for a full and official report on the matter from the Palawan-based Western Command (Wescom).

M/T Queen Seagull, a 40-meter supply and utility boat of Kalayaan town, was ferrying 133 Kalayaan islanders and 14 crewmembers back to Palawan from Pag-Asa Island in the Spratly archipelago, following the conduct of the midterm elections.

Bito-onon said the Chinese warship started chasing the Queen Seagull when their boat was passing by Ayungin Reef at around midnight Wednesday.

He said on several occasions the Chinese vessel sailed toward the Queen Seagull, and came so close as if the warship was poised to ram the boat.

The Chinese warship, with its floodlights directed at the Queen Seagull, also maneuvered left and right in apparent attempts to get the Philippine boat to sail toward shallow waters and be grounded.

“I was just thankful that most of our passengers were asleep. It could have triggered a major incident (if the passengers would panic),” Bito-onon said.

He added that even the skipper of the Queen Seagull and his assistant, both seasoned sailors, panicked when the Chinese warship conducted a ship-side maneuver toward the left when the Queen Seagull was passing by a reef to the right.

Bito-onon said he could only surmise that the Chinese warship is an escort vessel of two larger Chinese ships now anchored within the general vicinity of Ayungin Reef.

“With her powerful floodlights trained on our boat, our skipper and our guards were blinded from seeing what type of Chinese warship that harassed us. But it was a harrowing experience,” Bito-onon said.

Located halfway between Pag-Asa Island and Palawan, Ayungin Reef is being guarded by Filipino troops on board a grounded Philippine Navy cargo ship, BRP Sierra Madre.