{"id":219495,"date":"2019-06-19T05:18:16","date_gmt":"2019-06-19T09:18:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=219495"},"modified":"2019-06-19T05:43:53","modified_gmt":"2019-06-19T09:43:53","slug":"lorenzana-says-recto-bank-incident-just-an-accident","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/06\/19\/lorenzana-says-recto-bank-incident-just-an-accident\/","title":{"rendered":"Lorenzana says Recto Bank incident ‘just an accident’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
FILE: Secretary Delfin N. Lorenzana giving his remarks for the oath-takers of professional conduct for the AFP Modernization Phase 2. (Photo<\/a>: Department of National Defense – Philippines\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana on Wednesday, June 19, now thinks that the incident in the West Philippine Sea where a Filipino fishing boat carrying 22 fishermen sank was an accident.<\/p>\n

“I think it’s just an accident based on information we got from the crew. Siguro hindi sinasadya ng kabila na nasagi nila. ‘Yun lang hindi tinulungan <\/i>(Maybe the other side did not intend to bump them. It’s just that they did not help),”<\/i> Lorenzana said during the Kapihan sa Manila Bay forum in Manila.<\/p>\n

But while he perceives that what happened was an accident, his denouncement of the Chinese crew for abandoning the Filipino fishermen at sea after the incident “stays.”<\/p>\n

It was Lorenzana who was first to reveal and denounce the incident in public on June 12, as the country celebrated its 121st Independence Day.<\/p>\n

In his statement, Lorenzana said a “collision” happened between a Chinese and Filipino fishing vessel near the Recto Bank (Reed Bank) in the West Philippine Sea last June 9.<\/p>\n

“We condemn in the strongest terms the cowardly action of the suspected Chinese fishing vessel and its crew for abandoning the Filipino crew. This is not the expected action from a responsible and friendly people,” he earlier said.<\/p>\n

China had claimed that the Chinese captain attempted to rescue the Filipino fishermen “but was afraid of being besieged by other Filipino fishing boats.”<\/p>\n

It added that the Chinese vessel sailed away from the scene after confirming that the fishermen were rescued.<\/p>\n

Lorenzana, during the forum, said the Chinese nationals should at least apologize and pay compensation for the damage they caused to the aggrieved Filipino crewmen.<\/p>\n

President Rodrigo Duterte earlier dismissed the incident as “a little maritime accident.”<\/p>\n

“Banggaan lang ng barko \u2018yan\u00a0<\/i>(It was just a collision of ships).<\/i> Do not make it worse,” the Chief Executive said, adding that the public should also\u00a0“wait and give the other party the right to be heard.”<\/p>\n

Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin, Jr. already reported to the United Nations (UN) the June 9 incident, saying that abandoning people in distress is a “felony.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana on Wednesday, June 19, now thinks that the incident in the West Philippine Sea where a …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":198110,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-219495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-joanna-belle-deala","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219495"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219495\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":219498,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219495\/revisions\/219498"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}