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Report: Palau may cut Philippine ties
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Posted on Jan 12 1999
Palau President Kuniwo Nakamura is threatening to cut diplomatic ties with the Philippines if warnings against poaching by Filipino fishermen go unheeded, according to the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
Nakamura was said to be “exasperated” that the Philippines’ Department of Foreign Affairs ignored his protests against illegal fishing in Palau’s exclusive economic zone, said Miguel Iñigo, an honorary consul from Davao City in southern Philippines.
Palau lies 901 kilometers southeast of the Philippines. It has a population of about 17,000.
The report said the DFA had urged fishing companies in Mindanao to respect Palau’s EEZ, but this was evidently ignored.
Up to 100 Filipino fishermen have been arrested since 1997 for crossing into the EEZ, the Inquirer said. Last year alone, 47 fishermen were arrested and detained.
The mayor of Davao City, Benjamin de Guzman, said he feared for a slide in tourism if Palau went ahead and severed ties with the Philippines. The city is part of a tourism loop that comprised Palau, Guam and other Micronesian islands.
Businessmen from Mindanao also might suffer from the loss of Palau as a trading partner, the report said.
In May, Davao City officials and Palau held initial talks for agreements in construction, manpower exchange and technology transfer. The talks followed imports of 1,500 metric tons of cement from the Davao Union Marketing Corporation the month before.
The imports continued since then.
