Philippines agree to join China probe over boat sinking

MANILA: China and the Philippines agreed to conduct a joint inquiry over the sinking of a Filipino fishing boat by a Chinese vessel in disputed waters, President Rodrigo Duterte´s spokesman said Saturday. The June 9 incident, when the two boats collided in the South China Sea, has sparked public outrage. Manila has accused the Chinese trawler of abandoning the vessel´s 22 Filipino crew members — later rescued by Vietnamese fishermen — but Beijing has rejected this. China states the trawler merely “bumped” the vessel, and tried to rescue the fishermen — but was “afraid of being besieged by other Filipino fishing boats”. Duterte accepted the Chinese government´s offer to conduct a joint investigation into the incident, presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said in a statement, “to determine what really transpired”. The probe team should include “highly qualified and competent individuals, with the Philippines and China having one representative each, and a third member coming from a neutral country”, Panelo added.—AFP