MANILA: Justice Secretary Leila de Lima wants any administrative or criminal action arising from the killing of an alleged Taiwanese poacher off Batanes last May 9 to be in accordance with Philippine laws.
“As far as we are concerned, we have jurisdiction based on our laws,” she said following the end of separate investigations by Filipino and Taiwan authorities.
The Taiwan investigators have left Manila. The findings of the National Bureau of Investigation reportedly conflict with those of Taiwanese over the exact location where the Philippine Coast Guard shot and killed fisherman Hung Shih-cheng.
De Lima said the site is among the key issues to be resolved, along with factual findings based on evidence from the Coast Guard and those gathered from Taiwan during the case conference today.
“The bureau will make recommendations and may include criminal charges,” she said.
De Lima said the Department of Justice had nothing to do with the reported filing of murder charges against Filipino Coast Guards for the killing of Hung.
“The Philippines does not have an extradition treaty with Taiwan, she added. De Lima said the findings of the bureau are independent from those of the Taiwanese investigators.
They would not be consolidated, she added. The Coast Guard will await the findings following the end of Taiwan’s investigation. Taiwan’s representative office in Manila believes the Philippine government tried to avoid responsibility for the killing of Hung.
Quoting US foreign affairs expert Dennis Halpin writing in the Tokyo-based The Diplomat magazine, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) said the Philippines failed to build mutual trust and has misused its diplomatic language from day one in an attempt to reassure Taiwan.
TECO said the first mistake was when deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte described the Philippine Coast Guard’s assault on the Guang Da Xing No 28 as an act of self-defence against ramming by the fishing boat.
Another misstep came when the Philippine government, in an unofficial apology, described the killing of one fisherman as an “unintended loss of life,” TECO added.
Meanwhile, authorities in Taipei said Taiwan investigators had identified the gun used in the shooting, amid conflicting reports on whether the shooter had confessed.
The investigators have concluded that two guns were used to shoot at the fishing boat, including a M14 rifle suspected of firing the fatal shot, said Taiwan’s state-funded Central News Agency.
The report also said the shooter has been identified and that he had confessed to opening fire.
However Taiwan’s Apple Daily said no Filipino Coast Guard had admitted to using the M14 rifle.
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