7 Chinese held for ‘human smuggling’

DAVAO CITY — Seven Chinese fishermen, two of them Taiwanese, were arrested here last Thursday on human smuggling charges for illegally hiring Filipinos to join them in fishing expeditions to Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.

Immigration agents made the arrest based on reports that human smuggling has become rampant at the Davao international fishport in the city’s Toril district where foreign fishing vessels dock on a regular basis.

Those arrested were officers and crew members of F/V Yeong Fa Chen, a Taiwanese-registered vessel that docked at the Davao fishport last Jan. 27.

They were identified as boat captain Chenh Shang and engineer Huang Roei Hsing, both Taiwanese, and Chen Chi-To, Chang Hun Pue, Lin Yiu Hong and Change She.

They were alleged to have illegally tapped the services of three undocumented Filipino fishermen — Salvador Santarosa, John Maamo and Woody Mancha, all from Luzon.

Although the Chinese fishermen had passports, they, however, failed to produce the required license from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration.

The immigration bureau said the three Filipino recruits will be made to execute affidavits proving that the foreign fishermen employed them without the necessary documents that would support both their travel and employment.