Fishers shift attention to UN rights complaint
Fishermen from Subic, Zambales prepare their boats for another fishing trip to Scarborough Shoal moments after the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague favored the Philippines on its territorial dispute with China. (Allan Macatuno)
SUBIC, Zambales—Fishermen here have shifted their attention to a complaint they had filed against China in the United Nations on the heels of a landmark decision by the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague that the Philippines has legitimate rights over disputed areas like Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal.
Kabayan Rep. Harry Roque Jr. said the UN committee on economic, social and cultural rights (CESCR) would meet again in September to discuss the fishermen’s appeal.
The fishermen asked the United Nations to investigate “the massive and gross human rights violations committed against them by the state agents of the People’s Republic of China.”
More than 50 fishermen from Zambales and Pangasinan provinces filed the complaint last year with the help of Roque and the Institute of International Legal Studies of the University of the Philippines Law Center.
Panatag Shoal is a triangular chain of reefs and rocks surrounding a lagoon, 240 kilometers from the coastline of Zambales and western Pangasinan.
In its July 12 ruling, the PCA said there was no legal basis for China to claim historic rights to resources within the sea areas falling within the “nine-dash line.”
It also pointed out that fishermen from the Philippines and China both had fishing rights around the disputed Panatag Shoal and that China had interfered by restricting access.
The fishermen appealed to the United Nations to “urgently intervene and investigate the human rights violations committed by China” against Filipinos fishing on the shoal.
The United Nations should also direct China to “cease and desist” from violating their human rights, including their right to livelihood and adequate food supply, according to the fishermen’s petition.
Roque said the fishermen lost income in several instances when they were chased away by Chinese patrol boats, some dating back to 2012, for which they could be compensated if the UN should decide in their favor.
China seized the shoal after a two-month standoff between Chinese and Philippine coast guard vessels in 2012.
Based on the fishermen’s accounts, the Chinese patrols rammed their boats and attacked them with water cannons while fishing near the shoal.
Tirso Atiga, 44, a fisherman who joined the complaint against China, said he and other local fishermen had been waiting for feedback from the CESCR.
