Sealanes

From all the early indications, it was an accident. But it was an accident probably waiting to happen.

F/B Dearyn was rammed in the vicinity of Bajo de Masinloc on Oct. 2. Three Filipino fishermen were killed. The offending vessel was identified as the Pacific Anna, a crude oil tanker transiting through Philippine waters.

The tanker did not stop, as traditional maritime courtesy requires. The ship, according to initial inquiries, belongs to Sinokor Merchant Marine Co.

A full investigation may take some time to complete. Recall that when a Chinese trawler rammed into F/B Gem-Ver in the West Philippine Sea, it took all of three years for the fishermen to be compensated by the owners of the offending ship. The fishermen received only half of the compensation they demanded.

In both the ramming of Gem-Ver, as in the incident involving Dearyn, the culprits ran away from the scene without trying to rescue survivors. This is contrary to the time-honored courtesies once observed scrupulously by maritime crews. There are, to begin with, no authorities in the international sea routes enforcing these courtesies.

The situation has become a lot more precarious in the West Philippine Sea. China is claiming sovereignty over both the freedom of navigation routes and the waters within the Philippine exclusive economic zone. The Philippine Coast Guard does not have enough vessels to cover a broad area.

China’s ridiculous territorial claims compound the situation in one of the most crowded waterways in the world. The dangers of having no rules governing maritime traffic in these waters pose obvious perils.

Sen. Francis Tolentino thinks there is a need to conduct a full-scale Senate inquiry into the Oct. 2 incident even before receipt of a formal report from international bodies. The inquiry should go beyond determining liability for this accident. It should look into the possibility the Philippines could enforce rules for international maritime traffic passing through our territorial waters.

Tolentino is thinking along the lines of formally determining the country’s “archipelagic sea lanes.” On that basis, our country may set forth rules for vessels transiting through our waters as