The Philippines has brought to the attention of the United Nations the sinking of a Filipino fishing boat after it was hit by a Chinese vessel, with the distressed fishermen abandoned in the water for hours on June 9 near Recto Bank in the West Philippine Sea. Speaking at the 25th anniversary of the coming into force of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said the “duty to render assistance” is enshrined in international law and in the International Maritime Organization’s International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea and the IMO Convention on Maritime Search and Rescue. “The 22 Filipino crew were left in the water until a Vietnamese vessel took them on board. We are eternally grateful, we are eternally in debt to our strategic partner, Vietnam, for this act of mercy and decency,” Locsin said in a speech delivered Monday night at UN headquarters in New York, hours after President Duterte downplayed the sinking of the Filipino fishing boat.

Lee-Brago, P., & Mateo, J. (2019, June 19). DFA chief raises boat sinking at UN: ‘Abandoning people in distress is a felony’. The Philippine Star, pp. 1, 6.