Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin raised the issue of the collision of a Chinese vessel with a Filipino fishing boat at the Recto bank or Reed Bank, which is part of the exclusive economic zone of the Philippines, before the 29th meeting of State Parties to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) on Monday.
Locsin pointed out that the Philippines was one of the original signatories of UNCLOS in 1982, and it ratified it in 1984.
The same document was also used as basis for the filed a “carefully crafted and successful complaint at The Hague to clarify the legal situation in the South China Sea; to remove the confusion or the pretext of confusion on the part of those violating it.”
Locsin, in a statement he delivered at the meeting, pointed out that after the collision the Chinese vessel collided with the anchored Filipino boat, it left the area and 22 Filipino fishermen in the water.
The said fishermen were rescued by personnel from a Vietnamese boat, who took them to safety.
“The rescue of persons in distress is a universally recognized obligation of people and governments; and in the civil law and, maybe even in common law, it is a felony to abandon people in distress, especially when we cause that distress; and more so when it is no bother at all to save them at no risk to oneself,” he said.
Locsin cited Article 33 of UNCLOS on the “duty to render assistance”.
“The same categorical imperative is found in the IMO International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea and the IMO convention on Maritime Search and Rescue to which we have appealed,” he added.
Member-states of the UN and the IMO, Locsin pointed out, is obligated to observe the conventions in real life-and-death situations.
The duty of the master of a ship, as stated under the UNCLOS are:
1. To render assistance to any person found at sea in danger of being lost;
2. To proceed with all possible speed to the rescue of persons in distress, if informed of their need of assistance, in so far as such action may reasonably be expected of him; and
3. After a collision, to render assistance to the other ship, its crew and its passengers and, where possible, to inform the other ship of the name of his ship, its port of registry and the nearest post at which it will call.
“It is a felony to abandon people in distress, especially when we cause that distress, and more so when it is no bother at all to save them at no risk to oneself,” he said.
“While no sanction is available in international law, it should be a cause of some concern,” he added.
PH statement at the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, 17 June 2019. UN Headquarters. New York. pic.twitter.com/RsBHYgY2CS
— Teddy Locsin Jr. (@teddyboylocsin) June 17, 2019
