Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou recalled his representative from the Philippines and froze the hiring of workers from the Southeast Asian country, rebuffing the government’s response to the killing of a fisherman at sea.
Ma gave Philippine President Benigno Aquino until 6 p.m. today to make a formal apology for a May 9 shooting in which a Coast Guard ship opened fire on a Taiwanese fishing vessel in disputed waters, spokeswoman Li Jia-fei said at a briefing.
Edwin Lacierda, an Aquino spokesman, declined to comment on the deadline and repeated the president’s call for calm.
“President Ma is highly dissatisfied with the Philippines response due to the indecisiveness, lack of sincerity, and lack of high-level authorization shown by the Philippines government,” Taiwan’s government said in a statement.
Aquino had earlier offered to send his representative in Taiwan to apologize on behalf of the Filipino people.
The standoff threatens to disrupt trade ties and stoke tensions in an area rich in natural resources that’s beset by competing territorial claims.
Ma is battling a 14 percent approval rating, while Aquino must weigh the economic cost of the dispute against a formal apology that may benefit China, which claims the waters as well as Taiwan itself.
“The last thing Aquino wants to do is come across as weak, especially if ultimately what he’s doing is undermining the Philippine claims in that part of the South China Sea,” said Ralf Emmers, associate professor at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore.
While the apology he offered seems like a good compromise, “Ma must have felt that domestic pressure was so big this wasn’t good enough,” he said.
Taiwan Outrage
The death of the 65-year-old fisherman has sparked outrage in Taiwanese media and spurred protests outside the Philippine representative office in Taipei.
A Philippine patrol boat fired at least 32 shots at his vessel 164 nautical miles (304 kilometers) southeast of Taiwan’s southern tip, in waters north of the Philippines.
Taiwan Premier Jiang Yi-Huah said the Philippines would face more punitive action if it failed to formally apologize by 6 p.m., including a travel warning and a halt to airspace negotiations.
The island also wants the Philippines to compensate the fisherman’s family, investigate the incident, punish those responsible, and negotiate to settle a dispute over fishing grounds claimed by both sides.
Amadeo R. Perez Jr., chairman of the Manila Economic and Cultural Office, had planned to visit the fisherman’s family today and convey “deep regret and apology” on behalf of Filipinos, Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on its website.
The Philippines had also agreed to Taiwan’s demands for compensation, a joint investigation and fishing talks.
Approval Rating
Aquino’s approval rating rose 4 percentage points to 72 percent in March, polling body Pulse Asia Inc. said last month.
His allies appeared set to control a majority in the 24-member Senate after legislative elections two days ago. Ma, re-elected in January 2012 with 52 percent of the vote, had an approval rating of 14 percent in April, down from 15 percent in March, according to a poll by Taipei-based television network TVBS.
His approval rating between September and December 2012 stood at a record low of 13 percent. “This is an opportunity for him to shore up some confidence,” Alexander Huang, a professor at Tamkang University’s Institute of International Affairs and Strategic Studies in Taipei, said of Ma. “The general public here demands actions -- they want to see punishments.”
Fishing Resources
Taiwan’s demand for talks on fishing resources may also anger China, Huang said. China considers independently-governed Taiwan part of its territory. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said May 10 that China is “deeply concerned about the Philippines’ repeated shooting at unarmed fishermen.”
Last month, China objected to an agreement between Japan and Taiwan over fishing areas. The deal, which allowed Taiwanese fisherman access to Japanese administered waters near islands also claimed by China, covered an overlapping economic zone.
China and Taiwan share a nine-dash map of the South China Sea that the Philippines and Vietnam have rejected as a basis for joint exploration of oil and gas.
The Philippines asked the United Nations in January to rule on its maritime disputes with China after it took control last year of the Scarborough Shoal, a disputed land feature off its shores. Taiwan was the eighth largest buyer of Philippine goods last year, according to the Philippines’ National Statistics Office.
Taiwan exported $3.2 billion worth of goods to the Philippines in the first four months of this year, while importing $675 million, Taiwan’s finance ministry said.
Taiwanese Tourists
About 54,000 Taiwanese traveled to the Philippines in the first three months of the year, the fifth-biggest market representing 4.2 percent of total arrivals, according to the Philippines’ Department of Tourism.
Limits on Filipino workers, the third-largest group of foreign workers in Taiwan, may slow Aquino’s push to cut a jobless rate that climbed to 7.1 percent in January, with about 660,000 positions lost since October 2011.
The Philippines’ overseas workforce accounts for about 10 percent of its gross domestic product. Almost 1.7 million overseas Filipinos remit approximately $20 billion every year.
Taiwan had more than 85,000 Filipino residents as of March, according to Taiwan’s National Immigration Agency. “It is in the interest of both parties to proceed on a calm basis,” Aquino said at a briefing May 13.
bloomberg.com
Ma gave Philippine President Benigno Aquino until 6 p.m. today to make a formal apology for a May 9 shooting in which a Coast Guard ship opened fire on a Taiwanese fishing vessel in disputed waters, spokeswoman Li Jia-fei said at a briefing.
Edwin Lacierda, an Aquino spokesman, declined to comment on the deadline and repeated the president’s call for calm.
“President Ma is highly dissatisfied with the Philippines response due to the indecisiveness, lack of sincerity, and lack of high-level authorization shown by the Philippines government,” Taiwan’s government said in a statement.
Aquino had earlier offered to send his representative in Taiwan to apologize on behalf of the Filipino people.
The standoff threatens to disrupt trade ties and stoke tensions in an area rich in natural resources that’s beset by competing territorial claims.
Ma is battling a 14 percent approval rating, while Aquino must weigh the economic cost of the dispute against a formal apology that may benefit China, which claims the waters as well as Taiwan itself.
“The last thing Aquino wants to do is come across as weak, especially if ultimately what he’s doing is undermining the Philippine claims in that part of the South China Sea,” said Ralf Emmers, associate professor at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore.
While the apology he offered seems like a good compromise, “Ma must have felt that domestic pressure was so big this wasn’t good enough,” he said.
Taiwan Outrage
The death of the 65-year-old fisherman has sparked outrage in Taiwanese media and spurred protests outside the Philippine representative office in Taipei.
A Philippine patrol boat fired at least 32 shots at his vessel 164 nautical miles (304 kilometers) southeast of Taiwan’s southern tip, in waters north of the Philippines.
Taiwan Premier Jiang Yi-Huah said the Philippines would face more punitive action if it failed to formally apologize by 6 p.m., including a travel warning and a halt to airspace negotiations.
The island also wants the Philippines to compensate the fisherman’s family, investigate the incident, punish those responsible, and negotiate to settle a dispute over fishing grounds claimed by both sides.
Amadeo R. Perez Jr., chairman of the Manila Economic and Cultural Office, had planned to visit the fisherman’s family today and convey “deep regret and apology” on behalf of Filipinos, Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on its website.
The Philippines had also agreed to Taiwan’s demands for compensation, a joint investigation and fishing talks.
Approval Rating
Aquino’s approval rating rose 4 percentage points to 72 percent in March, polling body Pulse Asia Inc. said last month.
His allies appeared set to control a majority in the 24-member Senate after legislative elections two days ago. Ma, re-elected in January 2012 with 52 percent of the vote, had an approval rating of 14 percent in April, down from 15 percent in March, according to a poll by Taipei-based television network TVBS.
His approval rating between September and December 2012 stood at a record low of 13 percent. “This is an opportunity for him to shore up some confidence,” Alexander Huang, a professor at Tamkang University’s Institute of International Affairs and Strategic Studies in Taipei, said of Ma. “The general public here demands actions -- they want to see punishments.”
Fishing Resources
Taiwan’s demand for talks on fishing resources may also anger China, Huang said. China considers independently-governed Taiwan part of its territory. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said May 10 that China is “deeply concerned about the Philippines’ repeated shooting at unarmed fishermen.”
Last month, China objected to an agreement between Japan and Taiwan over fishing areas. The deal, which allowed Taiwanese fisherman access to Japanese administered waters near islands also claimed by China, covered an overlapping economic zone.
China and Taiwan share a nine-dash map of the South China Sea that the Philippines and Vietnam have rejected as a basis for joint exploration of oil and gas.
The Philippines asked the United Nations in January to rule on its maritime disputes with China after it took control last year of the Scarborough Shoal, a disputed land feature off its shores. Taiwan was the eighth largest buyer of Philippine goods last year, according to the Philippines’ National Statistics Office.
Taiwan exported $3.2 billion worth of goods to the Philippines in the first four months of this year, while importing $675 million, Taiwan’s finance ministry said.
Taiwanese Tourists
About 54,000 Taiwanese traveled to the Philippines in the first three months of the year, the fifth-biggest market representing 4.2 percent of total arrivals, according to the Philippines’ Department of Tourism.
Limits on Filipino workers, the third-largest group of foreign workers in Taiwan, may slow Aquino’s push to cut a jobless rate that climbed to 7.1 percent in January, with about 660,000 positions lost since October 2011.
The Philippines’ overseas workforce accounts for about 10 percent of its gross domestic product. Almost 1.7 million overseas Filipinos remit approximately $20 billion every year.
Taiwan had more than 85,000 Filipino residents as of March, according to Taiwan’s National Immigration Agency. “It is in the interest of both parties to proceed on a calm basis,” Aquino said at a briefing May 13.
bloomberg.com
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