BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - DAUGHTER of the Taiwanese fisherman who was killed at sea on May 9 by shots fired from a Government Philippine vessel is expected to file murder charges.
Details from a Philippine online media house, GMA Network, reported that a lawyer from Taiwan's Pingtung District Attorney's Office said Hung Tzu Chien would be filing murder charges against those responsible for the death of her father.
SKNVibes understands that the incident occurred when a Taiwan fishing boat, Guang Da Xing No. 28, was fired upon by a Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) unit in overlapping ROC-Philippine economic zones, resulting in the death of 65- year-old Hong Shi-cheng.
The online Philippine Star in a May19 article claimed that “the 65- year- old Hong Shi-cheng was fatally shot while intruding into Philippine waters. However, Taiwan had insisted that the shooting happened in its territorial waters”.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday (May 28), Attorney Chih Ming Hsieh was quoted in a separate GMA Network programme item saying, “She file murder against who shot her father” as communicated through his halting English speech.
According to the news source, “The lawyer said Chien is still trying to determine if she should file charges against the person who shot her father, the one who ordered the shooting, or all the Philippine Coast Guard personnel on the Philippine ship during the incident.
“On Tuesday, the eight-man National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) team sent to Taiwan to gather more information met with Chien and the other fishermen involved in the May 9 incident, which has triggered a row between the Philippines and Taiwan.”
GMA Network shared that the information gathering took almost 10 hours because the narration from the fishermen and questions from the NBI needed translation.
Reportedly, Hsieh had highlighted that “after all this investigation, I believe both sides will sit down to talk about what we found and try to reach a calm conclusion”.
Additionally, GMA Network reported that “Chien, the slain fisher's daughter, asked investigators to be fair and impartial in conducting the investigation. She also became emotional while thanking the Philippine media, including Consulta who is in Taiwan to cover the NBI probe, for seeking the truth about what happened”.
Also gathered from the Philippine Star's report, the Director of the Taiwanese Ministry of Justice’s Department of International and Cross-strait Legal Affairs, Chen Wen-chi, who was the head of an investigating team, maintained that the PCG personnel intentionally shot the Taiwanese fisherman and other crew members of the Guang Ta Hsin 28, to which she added “indicates intent of murder”.
Wen-chi noted that the vessel was shot 45 times and most of the bullets had struck the cockpit, where four crew members were hiding.
According to the Philippine Star, she said that “even if Philippine law enforcers on MCS-3001 were conducting an official duty, they should have followed the procedures of warning, dispelling, boarding and detaining the illegal vessel as provided for in international maritime law”.
“However, MCS-3001 failed to do the aforementioned measures, which clearly showed that the personnel on board the ship totally ignored and violated the customs of the international law,” she is quoted as saying.
