Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Passage lane for PH fishing vessels thru Indon EEZ eyed

DAVAO CITY- A proposal to have a navigation lane for Philippine-flagged fishing vessels to pass through the Indonesian Exclusie Economic Zone towards high seas is being submitted for deliberation by concerned Indonesian government agencies.

This was one of the consensus agreed upon during the 32nd  Republic of the Philippines- Republic of Indonesia (RP-RI) Border Committee Chairmen's Conference held at the Grand Regal Hotel in Davao City today (February 5).

The navigational lane aims to provide a shortcut for fishing vessels particularly for those based in General Santos who are planning to fish in the high seas. Commodore Antonio Habulan, Naval Forces Eastern Mindanao Commander and Vice-Chairman of the Philippine Border Committee said that it will save fishing vessels a couple of hours in travel time and also cut expenses in boat fuel.

In the current arrangement, fishing vessels will have to go a more circuitous eastern route from General Santos if they intend to go towards fishing grounds located in international waters.

The conference delegates led by Lt. General Ricardo Rainier Cruz, Commander of the Eastern Mindanao Command and Chairman of the Philippine Border Committee and his Indonesian counterpart Major Tni Bachtiar, commander of the Military Area Command VII and Chairman of the Indonesian Border Committee, has agreed that provision for such navigation lane will require high-level approval from Indonesia.

It would be part of the matters to be tackled during the high-level Joint Commission for Bilateral Cooperation which will be held in Jakarta later this month, and would be discussed and approved by the respective government agencies in Indonesia.

Other agenda discussed during the conference included; setting guidelines with regard to vessel type/size and mandatory safety equipment onboard vessels crossing the border, extension of coordinated patrol operations to Sulu Islands, modification of the coordinated patrol's concept of operations, harmonize border crossing stations' standing operations procedures, assignment of customs personnel at border crossing stations and restriction of liquor contraband across the border. (PIA/RG Alama)

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