{"id":236558,"date":"2019-11-04T20:45:10","date_gmt":"2019-11-05T01:45:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=236558"},"modified":"2019-11-04T20:45:10","modified_gmt":"2019-11-05T01:45:10","slug":"meddling-in-aura-incident-will-harm-livelihood-of-ph-mariners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/11\/04\/meddling-in-aura-incident-will-harm-livelihood-of-ph-mariners\/","title":{"rendered":"Meddling in \u2018Aura\u2019 incident will harm livelihood of PH mariners"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Locsin defended the statement made by Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo that the incident is not a Philippine concern because the vessel allegedly harassed is not a Philippine vessel.\u00a0(File photo<\/a>: teddyboylocsin\/Twitter<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0— Stepping in the incident involving a Chinese vessel allegedly harassing a Greek oil tanker \u201cGreen Aura\u201d with an all-Filipino crew near the Scarborough Shoal (Panatag Shoal) may cost thousands of Filipino mariners their livelihood, Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said on Monday.<\/p>\n

Locsin defended the statement made by Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo that the incident is not a Philippine concern because the vessel allegedly harassed is not a Philippine vessel.<\/p>\n

This after maritime law expert Jay Batongbacal described Panelo\u2019s remark as \u201cwrong on several levels\u201d, saying the spokesperson should stop speaking on matters of foreign policy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a Greek vessel of Greek ownership flying a Liberian flag of convenience which just happens to have a skipper of Philippine nationality,\u201d Locsin said in a message to media forwarded by Panelo.<\/p>\n

Locsin said meddling will drag Filipino mariners in the incident, emphasizing that none of the Filipino crew members in the Greek oil tanker were even harmed in the first place.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe stick our noses in and 400,000 Filipino mariners get embroiled in a maritime issue about which our only interest is the safety of the parts of the crew who just happen to be Filipino and were not harmed,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

He further said 400,000 Filipino mariners could lose their livelihood if the Philippine government would step in an issue better addressed by the Greek government.<\/p>\n

\u201cWant the employment 400,000 Pinoy mariners to hang in the balance of the games an idiot native media likes to play? Now that\u2019s harming their livelihoods,\u201d Locsin said.<\/p>\n

Panelo said he will be releasing a separate statement on the issue.<\/p>\n

On his official Twitter account, Batongbacal said Panelo\u2019s silence on China\u2019s assertion of jurisdiction against a Greek vessel is like saying the Philippines is not concerned that China does the same for any other state.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like a person not caring that his house is being managed by someone else who claims to be the owner and makes other people recognize he is the real owner,\u201d Batongbacal said.<\/p>\n

The maritime law expert explained that even if the incident involved a Greek vessel, it should still be a concern because the Philippines relies on foreign-flagged vessels for international trade.<\/p>\n

Reports said the Green Aura was going to China from Thailand through the West Philippine Sea on Sept. 30 when it received warning from a Chinese warship against passing the Scarborough Shoal.<\/p>\n

Filipino captain Manolo Ebora ignored this order and maintained the Green Aura has the right to innocent passage in the disputed shoal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— Stepping in the incident involving a Chinese vessel allegedly harassing a Greek oil tanker \u201cGreen Aura\u201d with an all-Filipino …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":202804,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-236558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236558","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\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236558"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236558\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":236559,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236558\/revisions\/236559"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}