Japan plans to give patrol boats to Philippines

Members of Philippine Coast Guard put up flags as they welcome the training vessel "KOJIMA" of the Japan Coast Guard in Manila, 11 August 2004. AFP FILE PHOTO

Japan plans to donate patrol boats costing $11 million each to the Philippines, ramping up the regional efforts to monitor China's maritime activity in disputed waters.

The Japanese Government plans to finance the deal in its fiscal 2013 budget starting in April and hopes to officially sign it early next year, the Nikkei business daily has reported.

Japan will then provide the Philippines with the newly built patrol vessels, which will cost more than one billion yen ($11 million) each, the newspaper said, without specifying the number of boats on offer.

Territorial disputes

Both the countries are locked in separate territorial disputes with China. Japan's dispute is over a group of uninhabited islands in the East China Sea known as the Senkakus in Japan and the Diaoyus in China.

The Philippines is one of several Southeast Asian countries, including Vietnam, that are rowing with China over claims to parts of the South China Sea. Two of the hotspots are the Spratly islands and Scarborough Shoal.

The Japanese coastguard also plans to train Philippine and Vietnamese personnel as part of additional efforts to boost security cooperation with Southeast Asia, the Nikkei said.

In the fiscal 2013 budget draft, 2.5 billion yen has been allotted for such expenditure, it said.

Last month, Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida visited Manila and called for stronger ties with the Philippines to help ensure regional peace.

Japan's coastguard had last month said it would create a special unit comprising 10 new large patrol boats to boost its surveillance of the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands.

The long-running row over the islands intensified in September when Tokyo nationalised part of the chain, triggering fury in Beijing and huge anti-Japan demonstrations across China.

In the most serious high-seas incident yet, Japan had last week said that a Chinese frigate locked its weapon-targeting radar on a Japanese navy vessel on January 30. China has angrily denied the charge.

Keywords: Territorial disputes, East China Sea, South China Sea, Senkakus island, Diaoyus island, Spratly islands, Scarborough Shoal, Japan-China territorial disputes, China-Southeast Asian nations territorial dispute. (http://bit.ly/Y4ZPRb)

The Hindu Business Line

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World's largest captive crocodile dies in Philippines

A worker places blocks of ice around Lolong as the crocodile is prepared for its autopsy on Monday in Bunawan, Philippines. Photograph: Erwin Mascarinas/AP

Philippine town in mourning as Lolong, the largest saltwater crocodile in captivity, dies aged 50

A southern Philippine town plans to hold funeral rites for the world's largest saltwater crocodile and then preserve its remains in a museum to attract tourists and prevent their community from slipping back into obscurity, the town's mayor said on Monday.

The one-tonne crocodile was declared dead on Sunday a few hours after flipping over with a bloated stomach in a pond in an ecotourism park in Bunawan town, which had started to draw tourists, revenue and development because of the immense reptile, the town's mayor, Edwin Cox Elorde, said.

"The whole town, in fact the whole province, is mourning," Elorde said from Bunawan in Agusan del Sur province. "My phones kept ringing because people wanted to say how affected they are."

Guinness World Records had proclaimed it the largest saltwater crocodile in captivity last year, measuring the giant at 6.17 metres (20.24ft). The reptile took the top spot from an Australian crocodile that measured more than 5 metres (17ft) and weighed nearly a tonne.

The crocodile was named Lolong, after a government environmental officer who died from a heart attack after travelling to Bunawan to help capture the beast. The crocodile, estimated to be more than 50 years old, was blamed for killing a number of villagers before Bunawan folk came to love it.

The giant reptile has come to symbolise the rich biodiversity of Agusan marsh, where it was captured. The vast complex of swamp forests, shallow lakes, lily-covered ponds and wetlands is home to wild ducks, herons, egrets and threatened species including the Philippine Hawk Eagle.

Wildlife experts were due to perform an autopsy as early as Monday to determine the cause of its death, Elorde said.

Bunawan villagers planned to perform a tribal ritual, which involves butchering chickens and pigs as funeral offerings to thank forest spirits for the fame and other blessings the crocodile has brought, Elordie said. A group of Christians would separately offer prayers before the autopsy.

The rites will be held at the ecotourism park, where the reptile had emerged as a star attraction, drawing foreign tourists, scientists and wildlife reporting outfits like the National Geographic to Bunawan, a town of 37,000 people about 515 miles (830km) south-east of Manila.

The crocodile's capture in September 2011 sparked celebrations in Bunawan, but it also raised concerns that more giant crocodiles might lurk in a marshland and creek where villagers fish. The crocodile was captured with steel cable traps during a hunt prompted by the death of a child in 2009 and the later disappearance of a fisherman. Water buffalo have also been attacked by crocodiles in the area.

About 100 people led by Elorde pulled the crocodile from a creek using a rope and then hoisted it by crane on to a truck.

Philippine officials had planned to construct a road to the park to accommodate the growing number of tourists, Elorde said, adding he planned to have the crocodile preserved and placed in a museum so Bunawan villagers and tourists could still marvel at it.

"I'd like them to see the crocodile that broke a world record and put our town on the map," he said. (http://bit.ly/11AKxKl)

The Guardian 

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