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Taiwan investigators arrive in Philippines

ROC Central News Agency

2013/05/16 13:30:41

Manila, May 16 (CNA) A Taiwanese delegation of prosecutors and officials from various government agencies arrived in Manila Thursday to conduct a probe into the fatal shooting of a Taiwanese fisherman by a Philippine government vessel May 9.

Philippine immigration officers helped the delegation pass through customs, but no other Filipino officials showed up to receive the delegation at Manila's international airport.

Staff of Taiwan's representative office in Manila greeted the delegation at the airport and the delegation members were scheduled to hold a meeting at the office on the division of labor and work guidelines for the investigation.

The group is being led by Perry Shen, director-general of the Department of Treaty and Legal Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and comprises officials from the Ministry of Justice (MOJ), the Coast Guard Administration, the Criminal Investigation Bureau and other relevant agencies, as well as prosecutors from the Pingtung Prosecutors Office.

The MOJ said prior to the delegation's departure that the group has two missions in the Philippines.

First, it wants to clarify the facts and see in person the people responsible for the strafing of the Taiwanese fishing boat Kuang Ta Hing 28 in waters where the exclusive economic zones of the two countries overlap, as well as articles related to the case, the ministry said.

Second, the delegation will demand that the Philippines promises to punish those involved and deliver the criminal suspects to Taiwan for trial because the crime took place on a Taiwanese boat, the ministry said.

If the Philippines does not hand the suspects over to Taiwan, the ministry said it will demand that the Philippines bring them to justice and compensate the victim's family.

The May 9 shooting left 65-year-old Hung Shih-cheng dead and the fishing boat he was working on seriously damaged.

Taiwan has demanded that the Philippines apologize for the incident, compensate the victim's family, investigate and punish those responsible and start talks on a bilateral fishery agreement.

As the Philippines has so far failed to make sincere responses to those requests, Taiwan has recalled its envoy to Manila, frozen the hiring of Filipino workers and imposed nine other retaliatory measures, including a red travel alert for the Philippines and suspension of various exchange and cooperation programs and visa-free privileges for Filipinos.

(By Tsai Pei-chi, Pien Chin-feng and Sofia Wu)