Taipei: Taiwan’s Ministry of Justice yesterday rejected a plan by 10 Philippine investigators to visit the country today to offer judicial assistance in the case of the shooting of a Taiwanese fisherman.
Justice Vice Minister Chen Ming-tang said the group would not be allowed to enter Taiwan for the time being because of its failure to respond positively to a request from Taipei to see a supposed video recording of the May 9 shooting, Taiwan News said.
A 17-member Taiwanese team which left for Manila last week to probe into the killing of Hung Shih-cheng returned home when it became clear the Philippines was not interested in cooperating.
Manila has claimed that agents on board a Philippine government vessel opened fire in self-defence when Hung’s fishing trawler tried to ram it during in off-limits territorial waters. Taipei has accused Manila of attempted homicide because Hung was unarmed and working in an area where Exclusive Economic Zones of both countries overlap.
Meanwhile, a reporter in Taiwan was sacked for fabricating a story about a diner refusing to serve Filipinos.
The reporter, identified only by his family name Cheng, wrote on his Facebook page that he “witnessed” a diner owner refusing to sell boxed lunches to two men after discovering that they were Filipinos, according to Lih Pao newspaper. When Cheng’s superior asked to meet the owner, the reporter sent an impostor and later admitted that he never saw the incident take place.
“We apologise to the public. Even though we tried to verify the story, we regrettably could not avoid such a deliberate deceit happening,” it said. Agencies
