A first person account:
By Nico Cartalla
VERA Files
We departed the island of Seychelles in the Indian Ocean on April 6 for a 21-day trip that would bring us back to the Mediterranean port of Palma de Mallorca in Spain to get the M/Y Teleost ready for summer. The 160-foot private superyacht sails to the Mediterranean in summer and to either the Caribbean or Indian Ocean islands in winter, entertaining multimillionaire clients who pay $240,000 dollars a week for a nice holiday.
Morale on board the ship was understandably low. A few days ago a charter yacht had been seized off Asuncion island a couple of hundred miles south from where we were. It was the first hijacking incident in the area. That night we received another report of an attack 100 miles north of where we were. A maritime advisory warned vessels against traveling 600 miles close to the Somalian coast. Our captain decided to divert the yacht’s course more to the east, away from the pirate-infested waters.
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In the last tripartite meeting held last Monday, 20/April, the hiring of military escorts/soldiers (Philippine Marines) was also discussed and taken into consideration. However, there is a problem here. Philippine soldiers can only deployed on vessels flying the Philippines flag since these are considered as Philippine territory. Deploying them on foreign-flag vessels entails some diplomatic issues.
Of course, to deploy soldiers on board vessels is another issue. Some shipowners do not agree to this. I’m not sure if our Philippine government has the political will to do this. If ever, it will take a long time before some action can be done.
If simple solutions to the Somalian piracy problem exist, the brilliant minds of the rich countries (owners of the goods in maritime trade) would by now be keeping those young buccaneers in check. Take for example, the aphoristic principle of innocent passage. A fishing vessel has as much right as a supertanker to navigate the high seas up to the moment the pretense and guise of innocence is contradicted by overt display of hostile acts. Premature defensive action by armed marshals, or even by naval escorts, would raise legal complications. Besides, merchant ships by tradition are unarmed (with the exception of the firearm in the Captain’s safe for use only in deterring mutiny), and arming one converts it to a man-of-war.
One way to make our seamen safe when they are held hostage is to teach them how to behave in such a situation.
Those seamen who were freed can cite examples on how to avoid being harmed by their Somali kidnappers. They can also described their kind and it is in knowing that you’ll be able to best control your ordeal.
We are a British Flag vessel and there was no problem for us what so ever to take French commandos onboard. By the way these French commandos we had were part of the team that freed the yacht Le Ponnant when they were hijacked off Somalia.
Its all for our government to have the will to protect our seafarers. The RP seafarers are part of the huge contengent of overseas workers that send back dollars to our country and help stable the econony. Imagine the impact on our economy if the seafarers stop sending money home.
I was talking to a chinese officer on one of the chinese flag vessel when we docked to pick up fuel in Yemen and he said that when they passed the Transit Zone they were 4 chinese vessels in a group ang they had their own chinese navy escort. See how their government easily reacts on these issues.
are you saying gloria should take care of our seafarers? for what? is it a big deal if any of our merchant marines are hostaged in high seas somewhere like somalia?
why should she care if these commodities of her are in danger? it’s only their remittances that is important to gloria and finding ways to protect them during such incidents is one gargantuan task for her. why should she when she can count her loot anytime and can hop from one country to another at the expense of the starving filipinos?
Re: “…Zone they were 4 chinese vessels in a group ang they had their own chinese navy escort. See how their government easily reacts on these issues.”
Normal! Vessels were China-owned vessels and to boot, flying China flag, hence it’s in the interest of China to protect their own vessels; they can only count on themselves because China is neither part of the EU or NATO.
If vessels were flying Le Drapeau Tricolore, they will be escorted/protected (as much as possible) by French Navy.
If vessels were flying the Union Jack, vessels would certainly be “escorted” or protected by Royal Navy; note that Royal Navy protection/escort is getting difficult because Royal Navy is stretched really thin, fortunately we have NATO fleet in the Gulf of Aden doing its bit (not enough but heck, better than none!)
At this stage, much as I dislike and thoroughly abhor defending Pinas govt under the greediest and vilest pandak in history, I must be fair, i.e., unless vessels are sailing under Philippine flag, there’s not much Pinas govt can do by way of protection even if for the sake of argument, Pinas had the capability to do so.
Regardless of crew, Filipino or otherwise, the responsibility of protecting, securing those vessels plying the Gulf of Aden or any pirate infested waters go to the vessel owners and the government under which these merchant ships sail.
However, what our government could do is to ENSURE that the Filipino crews working on board those vessels are adequately protected and to INSIST with the vessel owners who employ them to do everything in their power that no harm befall our merchant sailors.
If our govt cannot do it, it’s because they are incompetent and if proven incompetent, they must be fed to the pirates without any hesitation.
Nico,
Did you graduate from Zambales or from Bataan?
Ooops, I meant from Tarlac or from Bataan?
How RP gov’t will help the Pinoy merchant marine,it take 1000yrs, before those imposible thing will happen.Foriegn countries been assisting RP on modernization of our DND AND NATIONAL POLICE,but til now,no change been made,guest what happened those assistance been hand out to the gov’t.Millions of millions dollars been pour to improved our defense.All the allocations been disappearing into the air no trace at all.Imagine a small count of terrorist/ bandits of kidnapper they could not eradicate,what more sent to high seas w/limited capacity of equipments &supplies to protect our seafarer.Your are sending more dead bodies back home.
Most Filipino Merchant Marines work on different flag carrier ships, and the Nato Navies Patrolling the vicinity will come to their aid given the availability..But with thousand of ships sailing the Ocean infested by the Pirates, it is not just possible to protect everyone of them and at this moment, the Patrol can not engage the Pirates in any “shooting war” unless fired upon and can not even arrest them while plying the seas for their victims…the Commander of the HMCS Winnipeg can only ask their Sea King Helicopter Crew to display the sign in Somalian Text to Stop what they are doing and make sure that they are without the Weapons… that is how hard fighting the Piracy and until the rule of engagement is clearly defined, that for the moment all the Navies can Do…forget about the Philippines Own patrolling the Gulf, they might get lose and become the Hostages themselves.
i agree with Vic, he said: “forget about the Philippines Own patrolling the Gulf, they might get lose and become the Hostages themselves.”
Now that’s common sense.
Personal choice: Job security or Life security. which one is important?
Business Owner Choice: Loss of profit or loss of business economic life. This is a matter public policy or international policy specific on SECURITY ( i.e NATO and water jurisdictions )
When risk exceeds the benefits of doing business then it might be wise for any merchant or shipping companies to be very careful of its acts. It can be tortious if its employees will be subject to the current threat or piracy. Liability insurance or Business insurance policy may not pay benefits for any goods or loss of profits if there’s a greater risk and likelihood of piracy to occur. Any person also has its own life insurance policy. Please check with your life insurance if it will pay benefits if the death was a result of a hostage situation especially that Philippine government announced to BAN filipino seafarers from sailing along that route.
Solution to fear of losing job security is not short term but of long term financial planning and personal savings. I have shared before that it is advisable for pinoy OFW to establish a small business here at home. the risk of losing work overseas can be leveraged and protected by the income generated on the business at home- at least temporarily until rehiring and the safety of lives are more likely guaranteed.
many OFW may think that jobs overseas are for a lifetime. this can be a very wrong approach of understanding financial and economic stability at personal level. There are ways to spend quality time with family-forward looking into the future may solve many doubts and uncertainties.
Do not rely on your politicians… they don’t know any better.
AdeBrux.. Sir I am from Cebu but I am UK licensed mariner thats why I work on a UK flag vessel
Why we look on high seas piracy,even in our land we have so many pirates,just look around you,some are in uniformed,wearing barong or coat and robes,those are the civilized urban pirates,taking citizenries as hostages,due of power granted to them.Pirates doesn’t exist only in high seas.A person or group of people demanding payment/goods in return for illegal service they performed is act of piracy.
How can the Philippines patrol the Gulf when she can’t even patrol the territories at home?
The pirates caught by US were all teenagers. The mere sight of heavily-armed real soldiers will give them second thoughts I’m sure.
Why don’t we train new OFWs as maritime escorts? We hit two birds with one stone. Jobs and anti-piracy!
The cost of shipping has gone up due to steep premiums marine insurance companies charge nowadays. That reflects on the prices of goods passing through the gulf.
The millions of dollars spent on ransom payments will always be borne by the consumer. Why not spend it on mercenaries? Or for those countries who have adequate naval resources assign their navies to Gulf of Aden. These soldiers are paid anyway even without doing anything.
Or drop a 1-kiloton nuke on Somalia, it’s cheaper.
Nico, AdeBrux is a lady.
Somali pirates do not hurt Filipno seafarers. They respect Pacquiao. Only Americans hurt pirates ala gitmo.
Sorry for calling you sir Madam AdeBrux
Thanks Ellen
During my Anti Piracy training conducted by the French Special forces last year in preparation for our journey accross the gulf of Aden towards the Seychelles,this pirates do not intend to hurt the hostages. Well, hostages are their prized merchandise. They only harras them a little bit to cause confusion and panic, and to put their authority over the hostages. Of course when you have automatic weapons pointed at your face you’ll be scared shitless, you might shit your pants. They seemed to have rules to follow as well. Apparently, one of the pirates accidentaly fired his gun probably in panic too. He was sent off ashore and never been seen again.
As crew members our role is to maintain vigilance and monitor them. If they get to 200 meters close to us then that is when the commando escorts take over. 200 meters is best range for them to take a shot.A single shot from a 50 cal sniper rifle is enough to imobilize their boat from coming closer to us.
I think if these pirates see that the crew are ready for them they do not take chances too. There was one incident that the commercial ship captain fired a flare gun to the pirates and the pirates backed off. So that mean to say that any resistance showed by the crew scares the shit out of them too.The only reported death caused by the piracy attack to the crew was not because he was shot but the crew panicked and jumped off overboard.
It’s still safe out there… lets just be vigilant.
So, these pirates define their hostage taking as just a source of living and harming their prey is not part of their “job” and when shown early sign/act of resistance will back off to look for a meaker would-be-victim.
Why does gloria and her tralala party together with Lore-LIE Fajardo and the hare brained Anthony Golez NOT travel by sea passing the Somalian waters? Gloria’s and her party are a great catch since she can offer a mouth watering amount of ransom from her loot just to let her go plus a kiss bonus to any macho looking pirate. After all, she might really longs to get a kiss from a real man since she’s had enough from her swine husband.
Nilo,
Not a problem…
I pray you stay safe!
PS to Nico (sorry for the earlier misspelling:
If ever you come this side of the world (near Antwerp), hope you can drop in to have coffee with me and my family.
Come to think of it, I haven’t heard of any incident that Somali pirates hurt or killed their victims. Are there any? The only hostage death I recalled was when French commandos rescued a hijacked yacht a few weeks ago, killed by crossfire maybe?
From what I’ve read about these Somali pirates, they weren’t even properly trained to fight. They were just given weapons by ex-military men turned crooks who do the dealings and bargaining with owners whose ships were hijacked. They never ventured out to sea and do the dirty work, they just recruit fishermen or men who’re desperate to the job for them. If you look at the pictures of those captured pirates, you’d notice that they are really young, probably still in there teens.
These poor pirates most probably were paid measly sums while the bulk of the ransom goes to the masterminds.
Re: “killed by crossfire maybe?”
Indeed! Poor was killed in the crossfire.
Magnong_gala,
Kung si Gloria rin lang ang mahohostage kasama ng buong pamilya niya, dodoblehin ko pa ang bayad sa ransom demand, basta sunugin nila yung barko kasama yung mga hayop na yun!
Madam AdeBrux
Thats very nice of you madam.
We ariived Malta last night to pick up some duty free fuel before going to Mallorca. The weather is so nasty here at the moment it is blowing Southeasterly today but later today or tomorow it will start to blow Northwesterly and it will be in front of us. We are expecting winds up to 30+ miles per hour and up to 4 meter waves. It wont be nice. Just give me a shout if ever you get to South of France for the summer I may be able to show you around the yacht if we dont have any guests. We have a 6 week booking this summer and it’s only one person paying for it. Its 6 weeks of 240,000 US plus he has to pay for his food, wines (of which he doesn’t drink if its bellow 2000 US a bottle) and he has to pay for fuel too. About 2M US dollar bill at the end of a 6 weeks holiday I would say. Some guys are lucky,He’s not even a politician or any famous personality
24.
According to our French commando escort the guy stood up to protect his wife and son but was hit in the crossfire he should have just stayed calm and just dropped down as told. We’ll cant blame him.
You are right there sir, that’s when in the first sign of resistance from the crew they just change their mind and bugger off to find other ships that are not ready for them. Think about it, its just the same on any situation in the Predator and Prey world, if the prey is vigilant and ready to scape the Predator will leave him alone and find other unexpecting victim. Its almost like the Filipino people we are the Prey in this current stuation and the corrupt politicians are the predators if we just lay in there and do nothing these predators will tear us to pieces. What about if we change the whole thing and us become the predators what do you think will happen.
Hi Nico,
That will be lovely! Thank you — will give you a shout through Ellen.
My interest in Filipino seafarers stems partly from the fact that I am a sailor’s wife; my husband was a UK submariner, a former commanding officer in HM Submarine Service but most importantly, because my nephew is a junior officer, an ensign, aboard a tanker. He’s just graduated, passed his exams, has got his license and is now working.
I track the whereabouts of my nephew as often as I can; he makes it a point to call me as soon as he hits land to let me know how he is doing. I feel responsible for him because he came to me when he finished high school telling me that he wanted to go to the PMA and join the Navy. I was vehemently opposed to his joining the PMA in spite of encouragement by friends in the military and personal promises that he would be taken care of by no less than an AFP chief of staff at the time.
My nephew’s ambition, ever since he was a toddler was to sail or join the navy (perhaps growing up with us until he went to primary school, he must have been influenced by my husband) but I didn’t believe that a career in the AFP would be the right way forward for him.
I was also worried about hazing in the PMA (I never believed that violent physical bullying instill honour and integrity in a nation’s future military officers) and so did everything in my power not only to dissuade him but also went as far as “sponsoring” his entry to the maritime academy.
And so, my keen interest in Filipino seafarers. Seafaring, both for officers and ordinary staff is hard work. They are away from the family and for young ones, the temptations to go wayward are huge and of course, there’s always some risk (but I console myself by telling myself that there are risks in any job anyway…), hence I’m duly concerned when I hear of Filipino hostages being taken by Somalians.
I do hope things will change and that this piracy problem could be tackled in the best way possible.
I think the best way to deter piracy is to bomb several suspected skiffs. I bet you that that will make those recruits (pirates) think twice before launching an attack again. But that would be wishful thinking on my part. That would probably get the ire of human rights advocates. Oh, well.
“I bet you that that will make those recruits (pirates) think twice before launching an attack again”
Or convert the basically not so violent hostage takers into rabid fanatics…
as in fanatical beheaders, butchers, bludgeoners of hostages, etc.
“Or convert the basically not so violent hostage takers into rabid fanatics… as in fanatical beheaders, butchers, bludgeoners of hostages, etc.”
In that kind of a scenario, two things that comes to mind (mine at least). How will the international forces react to these sudden change of behavior? A full scale attack? Maybe.
Second, if these guys (the pirates) becomes instant killing machines, they wouldn’t be different from those terrorist ala suicide bombers anymore. They wouldn’t care less if they get killed or not as long as their objectives are met. That would be more worrisome, don’t you think?
Mike — yep, that bit of illustration would indeed be more worrisome, not because we can’t fight back but because Americans would panic (
Americans panic as airplane flies around Manhattan…
) and would invade Somalia wiith a set of coalition of the willing… you know, in the guise of finding WMD stuff à la Iraq… heh!
(Now, where the bleeding heart are Cheney and Rumsfeld?)
Hi Mike
We had that discussion during our Anti Piracy training and the problem is that you will be subjected againts humanitarian and international law. The thing is that you shoot this guys and they will just throw their weapons in the water and claim that they are just normal fishermen then you’ll have auhorities waiting for you in the next port. Human rights my ass. I have stressed that to them that when you are out 50 miles away from shore and start chasing ships you have no right anymore. Think about the issue with that Filipino captain on that german vessel,he will have to testify that those are pirates that attacked them and not fisherman. That is why the best way according to the french commandos, when they get 200 meters to the ship they will just shoot their engine and leave them there. Then they cannot harm anybody and you didnt kill anybody, its up to them if they have to swim back
the somalian govt want western countries to build up their navy which means a lot of money and some countries are willing to help monetarily. if this comes thru, gma can copy this technique of piracy to get more money to corrupt other pinoys not yet corrupted.
Nico,
When I suggested that they bomb those pirates, it should be done in a covert act. They don’t have to identify themselves nor tell anyone that they were the ones who bombed the pirates. Sure, the humanitarian activist can complain until they drop but they will be clueless as to who did it. They can get some pointers from those death squads in Davao. 😀
Funny why those humanitarian activist doesn’t complain and usually looked the other way when innocent civilians are killed or raped by criminals, but when those criminals get convicted and sentenced to death, they cry human rights violation. Do they have to wait until one of their family members get killed or raped before they would realize that those scumbags doesn’t deserve to live a minute longer in this world?
Why We Don’t Condemn Our Pirates in Somalia
By K’Naan , URB Magazine. Posted April 14, 2009
Excerpts:
[…] Now Somalia has upped the world’s pirate attacks by ove r21 percent in one year, and while NATO and the EU are both sending forces to the Somali coast to try and slow down the attacks, Blackwater and all kinds of private security firms are intent on cashing in. But while Europeans are well in their right to protect their trade interest in the region, our pirates were the only deterrent we had from an externally imposed environmental disaster. No one can say for sure that some of the ships they are now holding for ransom were not involved in illegal activity in our waters. The truth is, if you ask any Somali if they think getting rid of the pirates only means the continuous rape of our coast by unmonitored Western vessels, and the production of a new cancerous generation, we would all fly our pirate flags high.
It is time that the world gave the Somali people some assurance that these Western illegal activities will end, if our pirates are to seize their operations. We do not want the EU and NATO serving as a shield for these nuclear waste-dumping hoodlums. It seems to me that this new modern crisis is a question of justice, but also a question of whose justice. As is apparent these days, one man’s pirate is another man’s coast guard. […]
Madam AdeBrux
There is a bit of truth about this story. EU fishing vessels are harvesting tuna around the Somali waters and taking them to the Seychelles, some for canning but mostly to be dilivered to Europe onboard the reffers that are waiting there in the port. Tons and tons of tuna are being harvested weekly and I am sure that they are not only from the Seychelles waters.
But it doesn’t give them the biggest right to act criminally. If they want to protect their stuff they just have to have a proper government to start with and I am sure the whole world is willing to give them a hand harvest their natural resources.
Nico,
I’m pretty sure all of us are guilty of contaminating and the looting of Somali waters.
But the writer also highlights that the most guilty culprit is a US mercenary/security operations company: BLACKWATER.
“Blackwater and all kinds of private security firms are intent on cashing in.”
The writer accuses them of cashing in on the mayhem by dumping toxic wastes in their waters.
Its all the same where ever we go any way if there is an upportunity to cash in to something, everybody dips their bread into it.
Agree! Alas, this is one of the reasons why there are so many human tragedies the world over.