Commander ordered us to fire, say Philippine coast guard officers
Staff Reporter 2013-06-01 09:17
Philippine coast guard officers leave after questioning by Taiwanese investigators on May 29. (Photo/Chen Cheng-tang)
Eight Philippine coast guard officers have told Taiwanese investigators that their commanding officer ordered them to open fire on the fishing boat Kuang Ta Hsing No. 28, which the commander maintains was trespassing in Philippine territorial waters on May 9, our sister paper China Times reports.
The Taiwanese team, which is in the Philippines investigating the fatal shooting of fisherman Hung Shih-cheng, had their first opportunity on May 30 to question the officers on board the Philippine ship at the time of the incident. An officer who says he refused to fire on the fishing boat claimed that his commander seized his rifle and shot at the fish boat for "at least 10 minutes."
Of the 20 officers on board the coast guard boat, the team concluded that eight of them, including the commander, fired on the Kuang Ta Hsing using at least two different automatic rifles and a machine gun.
The investigators asked to carry out a polygraph test on the coast guard officers but the request was declined by the Philippine's National Bureau of Investigation.
China Times reported that video footage of the incident seen by the investigators suggested that the fishing boat appeared to back up and then move forward again when it encountered the Philippine vessel. This, they said, gave the commander the pretext that the boat was trying to ram them and prompted his order to open fire.