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Rodrigo Duterte wants a joint Manila-Beijing probe into the South China Sea sinking. Could it be a good idea?
- The Philippine president has been criticised for being too soft on China in his response to the June 9 sinking of a Philippine fishing vessel by a Chinese ship
- While opinions are divided, some experts say working together could stop the investigation from turning into a squabble over jurisdiction in the waterway
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In the early hours of June 9, a Chinese-registered ship struck the Philippine vessel F/B Gimver 1, sending all 22 Filipino fishermen aboard tumbling into the sea. The boat, from China’s southeastern Guangdong province, fled the scene – leaving a passing Vietnamese ship to rescue the men.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday said he was open to China’s suggestion to conduct a joint probe into the affair, even as he dismissed it as a “little maritime incident” where “there was damage but luckily nobody died”.
Duterte’s critics have been frank in their opposition to this stance. Senate minority leader Franklin Drilon, a former head of the country’s justice department, said “a joint investigation would derogate our jurisdiction and prejudice our claim in the West Philippine Sea”, referring to the portion of the South China Sea claimed as Philippine territory.
He also wondered which country’s laws would prevail.
What [seven to eight vessel] swarm of night-marauding Filipino fishing boats is China talking about?
Senator Francis Pangilinan, president of the opposition Liberal Party, said that a joint inquiry violated the Philippines’ Fisheries Code. In a statement, he warned that “it will never be a fair investigation when one is the oppressed and the other is the oppressor”.
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