ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanao Examiner / 29 Jul) – The Taiwanese police have uncovered an extortion racket involving Filipino navy patrol boats victimizing Taiwanese trawlers caught in Philippine waters, reports said.
Strategy Page, a research and military analysis website, said Filipino naval officers were extorting money from Taiwanese fishermen in exchange for the release of their boats.
“Taiwanese police have uncovered an extortion racket involving Filipino naval officers. At least two Filipino patrol boats have caught Taiwanese fishing boats illegally operating in Filipino waters.”
“The Filipino offer to let the fishing boat captains pay a lower fine, directly to the officers, rather than pay a larger fine and have their boats detained in a Filipino port,” it said in a report that can be accessed on this web page http://www.strategypage.com/qnd/phillip/articles/20070728.aspx.
The report did not say where or how many Taiwanese fishermen were arrested or give details of the extortion activities.
But Filipino patrol boats have previously detained Taiwanese and Chinese fishermen for poaching off the Sulu Archipelago near the Sabah border the southern Philippines and also off Palawan island in central Philippines and in northern Luzon near Taiwan.
It was unknown if the Philippine Navy was aware of the report, but officials could not be immediately contacted to make a statement about the allegations.
The Philippine Navy has been involved in several anomalies in the past – from overpriced Kevlar helmets to smuggling activities in the south. (Mindanao Examiner)
