Even though the BBC was brave enough to broadcast this investigative
report, but will it be seen by everyone in the Philippines?
By: Ringo Bones
The BBC’s intrepid field correspondent Rupert
Wingfield-Hayes was the first, and probably the only one, to uncover this
tragic and wanton environmental destruction by Mainland Chinese
fisherman-poachers of the Philippine coral reefs in the disputed South China
Sea unprecedented since the late Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein ordered his
Republican Guards to set the Kuwaiti oil fields afire and the port pipelines to
leak crude oil into the Persian Gulf to choke the desalination plants of
surrounding states. Brave and noble his act of journalistic bravado and
environmental concern be, it is very likely that only a few, fortunate Filipinos
have seen it during the past few days – i.e. those rich enough to afford cable
and satellite TV subscriptions that carry BBC World broadcasts – because most
major TV and radio stations in the Philippines are largely financed by Mainland
Chinese companies’ advertising money.
Even though Rupert Wingfield-Hayes probably heard of the “rumor”
this wanton environmental destruction a few weeks before the December 15, 2015
broadcast of the finalized investigative report, “rumors” of illegal Mainland
Chinese fisherman-poachers illegally encroaching into Philippine territorial
waters had been a well known incident that’s only eye-witnessed by poor and
lowly subsistence for years and way before the advent of “affordable” mobile
smart-phones with video cameras. The BBC reporter was told by the mayor of one
of the islands in Palawan that Mainland Chinese fisherman-poachers were
deliberately destroying reefs near a group of Philippine-controlled atolls in
the Spratly Islands, but he wasn’t initially convinced.
Rupert Wingfield-Hayes initially didn’t take it seriously
thinking that it might be just an anti-Beijing government bile from an over-achieving
politician keen to blame everything on his disliked neighbor – especially a
neighbor who claims most of the South China Sea as its own. But thanks to the
BBC reporter’s curiosity and bravado, a first-hand visit to the area with
everyday Filipino fishermen onboard on the same craft that they used to eek out
a meager living, the intrepid BBC reporter finally saw with his own eyes and
captured it on camera a bunch of Mainland Chinese fisherman-poachers illegally
gathering protected coral reef fauna like giant clams and plowing the reefs
using the anchors of their large boats to an extent that the reefs could take
at least 10,000 years to fully recover. And the Filipino fishermen in the area even said that the Mainland Chinese troops occupying the region and building artificial islands are even actively protecting the illegal Mainland Chinese fisherman-poachers from being apprehended by the outgunned under-budgeted Philippine Coast Guard and Philippine Navy. Given that probably none of the
Philippine’s military top brass saw the BBC broadcast, talks of war with
Mainland China is currently on the same level as a Gene Roddenberry science
fiction work on the consciousness of most Filipinos oblivious to the incident.
