Press Release - Citing 'Humanitarian Purposes,' Robin Pushes Early Compensation for Victims in WPS Collision

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZhTLibpzSU

Citing "humanitarian purposes," Sen. Robinhood "Robin" C. Padilla pushed Thursday for early compensation for victims of the collision between a commercial vessel and a fishing boat in the West Philippine Sea.

At the Senate hearing that tackled the collision, Padilla stressed the government must speed up the process of giving compensation to the victims as they and their families are very poor.

"Ang akin lang gustong imungkahi sa ating taga-gobyerno at siyempre dito sa ating mga bisita, for humanitarian purposes ika nga, if we could consider because these are very poor fishermen ... I hope we could consider giving them compensation right away (I want to suggest to the government and to our visitors that for humanitarian purposes, we could consider giving them early compensation because these are very poor fishermen. I hope we could consider giving them compensation right away)," he said.

He noted that the fishermen are poor and dahil sa kahirapan, hindi naiintindihan ng mga biktima ang mga usaping legal tulad ng United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

Also, he said the victims could not afford to wait until the investigation and court processes are completed, as this could take years.

"Masyado kayong legalistic. Hindi naman nila maintindihan yan ang UNCLOS natin, kung ulit ulitin natin yan, ang UNCLOS. Mismo ang kababayan natin gulong gulo na diyan eh. Di natin maipaliwanag kung ano ang sovereignty, ano ang sovereign rights (We are too legalistic. They may not understand what UNCLOS is, or sovereignty or sovereign rights)," he said.

"To tell you the truth we are not, the fishermen are not technologically advanced, they don't even have radio, they don't even have radar... If we will wait for the court to decide this will take years. The collision is about a big ship and a very obsolete fishing vessel (The fishermen are not technologically advanced, they don't have radio or radar. If we will wait for the court to decide, this will take years. The collision is about a big ship and a very obsolete fishing vessel)," he added.

Meanwhile, Padilla stressed the importance of establishing archipelagic sea