Chinese warship chases Kalayaan town boat carrying mayor-elect

A Chinese warship chased and tailed, in a provocative manner, the utility boat of Kalayaan island town with 147 civilian passengers, including the group of re-elected Mayor Eugenio Bito-onon, while sailing back to Palawan from Pag-Asa Island in the hotly-contested Spratly region.

Bito-onon said the Chinese warship coming from the east side area of Ayungin Reef, used its powerful floodlights while chasing and tailing M/T Queen Seagull early Thursday.

"The Chinese warship was only 50 meters away from our own boat," Bito-onon said, adding that the incident started when M/T Queen Seagull, that left Pag-Asa Island Wednesday morning, was passing by the Philippine-occupied Ayungin Reef at past midnight.

A grounded Philippine Navy (PN) transport ship, BRP Sierra Madre, is now being used as a Naval detachment by the Western Command (Wescom) to house Filipino troops on forward deployment in Ayungin.

Several Chinese warships and surveillance ships were monitored to have taken up position in the area for several days now as part of China's aggressive move in laying its territorial claim to almost the entire South China Sea.

Bito-onon said the Chinese warship only stopped tailing them when their boat was already navigating around the Half Moon Shoal, an area where a Chinese gunboat ran aground last year.

"For almost an hour, the Chinese warship tailed our boat," Bito-onon said in a phone interview shortly after the docking of M/T Seagull at Buliluyan Port in Palawan's southern town of Bataraza.

Bito-onon is heading back to Puerto Princesa City after winning the three-cornered mayoralty contest in Kalayaan town in the Spratlys region during the conduct of the May 13 mid-term national and local elections.

Out of the total number of registered voters in the island town, Bito-onon got 108 votes, while his closest rival, businessman Noel Osorio got 69 and retired military man and former Kalayaan Vice Mayor Rosendo Mantes, got 46 votes.

The conduct election in Kalayaan has been considered as the fastest electoral process in the country's history. Voting started in the island at about 7 a.m. and in a matter of six hours the electoral process was completed, with Bito-onon emerging as a runaway winner.

"Aside from the PCOS result, we also conducted a parallel manual count. The election in the island is the most peaceful," Bito-onon said. – with Kathryna De Bustos

with report from philSTAR

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Taiwanese Attacked: Filipino was beaten with a bat - Island now is Dangerous! Stay Indoors or fly back home

Taiwanese fishermen hold a poster of Filipino President Benigno Aquino III with the label "barbarian pirate" during a protest against the shooting death of a fellow fisherman last week by the Filipino coast guard. (David Chang / European Pressphoto Agency / May 13, 2013)

Philippines Fears for Workers in Taiwan Amid Row

The Philippine envoy to Taiwan on Friday advised thousands of Filipino workers there to eat at home and avoid the streets while emotions run high on the island over the shooting death of a fisherman by the Philippine coast guard.

Philippine representative Amadeo Perez said after returning to Manila from Taipei late Thursday that his government has verified at least one attack, in which a Filipino was beaten with a bat.

"He was brought to a hospital and police are investigating. We are documenting the cases," he said.

Taiwan has frozen the hiring of Filipino workers, cut trade exchanges and discouraged travel to the Philippines because of the fisherman's death. Its government brushed aside an apology from the Philippine president as insufficient.

Taipei is demanding compensation, investigation, punishment and negotiations on a fishing agreement. Perez said that there additional demands, which he did not specify before reporting to Philippine President Benigno Aquino III.

"At this time, Taiwanese people are emotional and tension is high," Perez said. "We advised Filipinos there not to leave home as much as possible. Eat your meals at home, and just commute directly between home and work for now."

Read this news in Global Times http://bit.ly/11oNFtq 

Perez said he may recommend the repatriation of Filipinos if the need arises. "We will not abandon our people," he added.

The Taiwanese government has asked Taiwanese to behave correctly with Filipinos.

Filipino workers in Taiwan who were interviewed by Manila radio stations complained that some shops refused to sell them goods and restaurants would not serve them. They did not give their names for fear of reprisals. A Taiwanese company that employs Filipinos printed a memo advising them to avoid fishing villages.

The circumstances behind the May 9 shooting of the fishermen remain in dispute, though the Philippines acknowledges that its coast guard personnel opened fire on a Taiwanese boat. Manila says the action was taken in self-defense to prevent the Taiwanese from ramming the coast guard vessel, but Taiwanese fishermen deny the ramming claim.

Both countries are investigating the incident. Fourteen Taiwanese police investigators are in Manila, and Philippine investigators will ask Taiwanese authorities for permission to inspect the fishing boat and interview the crew.

Trade between the Philippines and Taiwan is about $11 billion, with a surplus of $6.7 billion in Taiwan's favor.

With report from Global Times and  ABC News

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