TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Premier Jiang Yi-huah announced a new set of sanctions Wednesday evening after the Philippines missed a second deadline to meet Taiwanese demands over the fatal shooting of a fisherman.

The May 9 death of Hung Shih-cheng, 65, after his fishing trawler was raked by machine gun fire from a Philippine government vessel provoked widespread indignation in Taiwan.

Foreign Minister David Lin refused to meet with the top Philippine official in charge of relations with Taiwan, Manila Economic and Cultural Office Chairman Amadeo Perez Jr., Wednesday because he was “not sufficiently authorized.”

After the new deadline passed at 6 p.m. Wednesday without any new developments, Jiang said Taiwan was imposing a red alert on travel to the Philippines, removing the country from its visa-waiver program, and suspending exchanges and cooperation in several domains, including fishing, science and technology, and aviation negotiations. High-level meetings between officials of both countries would also stop, according to Jiang. The new sanctions also included a round of joint Navy, Coast Guard Administration and Air Force maneuvers scheduled for Thursday.

“The statements by the Philippines changed back and forth from start to finish and lacked sincerity,” Jiang said Wednesday evening.

He added that the government had set up a special taskforce to supervise the implementation of the sanctions, but also called on citizens not to take their anger over the incident out on innocent Filipino residents in the country.

The new measures came in addition to the immediate suspension of the processing of applications by Filipinos to work in Taiwan, the recall of representative Raymond Wang from Manila and the demand for Manila’s representative in Taipei Antonio Basilio to return to the Philippines to help settle the matter. The three sanctions were announced in the morning after President Ma Ying-jeou was reportedly furious about the lack of progress made during a meeting between Lin and Basilio Tuesday evening.

Ma had demanded that Manila provide an acceptable apology, compensate Hung’s family, investigate the shooting and punish those responsible, and make a move to start fishing talks. Basilio arrived back in Taipei with the response to Ma’s ultimatum, but talks with Lin bogged down, causing a joint news conference scheduled for 8:30 p.m. Tuesday to be held after 1 a.m. Wednesday.

Presidential spokeswoman Garfie Lee said Ma was “highly displeased” with Manila’s attitude, accusing the Philippines of flip-flopping and of a lack of sincerity. He called a meeting of the National Security Council Wednesday morning which decided to introduce sanctions immediately.

At an international news conference following the first spate of sanctions, Jiang said Manila’s response so far had not been acceptable because it did not include an apology from the Philippine government, but only from the people. Manila also failed to promise any charges against responsible maritime officials, while only promising to turn over donations from the public over as compensation for the Hung family. Any commitment to future fishing talks was also too vague because Manila only spoke about preventing similar incidents in the future, Jiang said.

Perez, who arrived in Taiwan Wednesday noon, was planning to travel to Liuchiu in Pingtung County to visit the Hung family and offer his apologies, but reports said that they were not interested in receiving him. After Lin also refused to meet him, it was not entirely clear what his schedule in Taiwan would be.

In Manila, presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said Perez represented President Benigno Aquino III to offer an apology to the relatives of the dead fisherman.

In the meantime, the Taiwanese Navy’s largest vessel, a Kidd-class destroyer, left Kaohsiung Wednesday afternoon in preparation for drills to start early the next day in waters between Taiwan and the Philippines, reports said. The Air Force was sending Indigenous Defense Fighters, F-16 fighter jets and E-2K early-warning planes to participate in the joint maneuvers, reports said. Jiang said Taiwanese Navy vessels could be expected to protect fishermen on a regular basis in those areas where the two countries’ economic exclusion zones overlapped.

With travel sanctions imminent, the Philippines reportedly withdrew from an international travel fair in Taipei scheduled for later this month.

In a separate development, three Taiwanese investigators from the Pingtung Prosecutors Office were planning to leave for the Philippines on Thursday in order to determine the circumstances of Hung’s shooting. Philippine sources insisted early on that they had fired at Hung’s ship, the Kuang Ta Hsing No.28, because it was about to ram them. The prosecutors were likely to review video footage of the incident, reports said.

On a visit to the Hung family, former Democratic Progressive Party Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen said the government should first compensate the relatives of the shooting victim and then file for compensation from the Philippines as a country. She said the Hungs could face unfair treatment if the government failed in its duty to assist them.

The DPP said Taiwan should not wait until Wednesday evening before launching the latest sanctions while the foreign minister should resign. Lawmakers said the government should take the Philippines to international arbitration and should expand its fishing zone in disputed areas.

Ma’s first round of ultimatums and sanctions were too soft, the DPP said, adding that Lin had underestimated the Philippines and misjudged the response Basilio would bring.

The foreign minister should resign to take responsibility for his muddled handling of the affair, former Premier Yu Shyi-kun said. The DPP also questioned why Lin first seemed to approve of Basilio’s message, but Ma still went ahead with sanctions on Wednesday.

