Doing things right this time

It has happened yet again; another fishing vessel manned by Filipinos has been struck and sunk by a foreign vessel.

This time the incident happened off Mamburao, Mindoro Occidental, when the Hong Kong-flagged MV Vienna Wood hit the FV Liberty 5 last Monday.

As of this writing yesterday, the estimated 12 crew and two passengers of the fishing vessel are still missing and being searched for.

This is barely just over a year since the incident involving the FV Gem-Ver, which was hit and sunk by a Chinese vessel off Recto Bank last June 9, 2019. The Chinese vessel later left the area without attempting to help the sinking vessel or issuing any distress call to alert authorities.

During this latest incident, the Vienna Wood did make a distress call. However, according to the Coast Guard, the call came three hours after the incident. Three hours that could have made such a huge difference.

While there are differences in the cases of the Gem-Ver and the Liberty 5, the basics remain the same; a bigger foreign vessel has hit and sunk a smaller Philippine vessel and, at least based on what has been reported in initial reports, there appears to have been insufficient attempts at rescue.

This after the Vienna Wood decided not to deploy small boats to look for survivors.

If sufficient evidence is found, this time authorities must hold those responsible to account in this latest incident.

If we look back on what happened to the Gem-Ver and her crew, the situation was handled very badly by the authorities. There was much blame placed on the victims themselves, they were intimidated and cowed from telling their side of the story, and there was very little in the form of aid from the government after the accident.

The biggest insult? The Chinese vessel that was responsible for the incident, the ship that had no right to be in our waters in the first place, got off with a slap on the wrist.

This latest incident is a chance for authorities to make right all that was done wrong during the Gem-Ver incident, and also to set a precedent.

Considering how many of our poorer brethren have no recourse but to turn to fishing as their livelihood and considering how many international vessel ply Philippine seas, we can be sure that incident like these, though rare, are bound to happen again.