RP navy detains fishing boats

RP navy detains fishing boats

ZAMBOANGA, Philippines (AFP): The Philippine navy detained four Malaysian fishing boats for poaching and dynamite fishing in waters off the southern province of Tawi-Tawi, officials said yesterday.

The four trawlers were discovered Thursday near Clotilde Rock off Baguhan island in Tawi-Tawi and were towed by the navy to the provincial capital of Bongao, said Commodore Adolf Borje, chief of the naval forces in the southern Philippines. The boats were owned by Malaysian nationals, he said.

The fishermen will be turned over to the regional police committee on illegal entrants, he added, without saying how many were being held.

Tawi-Tawi is close to Sabah, an east Malaysian state claimed by the Philippines on historical grounds.