NBI team’s trip to Taiwan on hold

MANILA—The trip to Taiwan by a team of probers from the National Bureau of Investigation has been put on hold due to a disagreement over the presentation of evidence collected by both sides.

A reliable source privy to the negotiations told the Philippine Daily Inquirer in a telephone interview that the disagreement involved “the turnover of a video to the Taiwanese investigators taken by one of the men on board the BFAR (Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources)boat.”

Officials never disclosed when the NBI team was originally scheduled to arrive in Taiwan.

Eric Chiang  of the Taiwan Ministry of Foreign Affairs told the Inquirer in an interview Wednesday afternoon that “the two teams were to announce at the same time the start of each team’s investigation.”

Chiang said the Taiwanese side requested that any agreements arrived at by the two teams regarding their respective investigations into the May 9 killing of a Taiwanese fisherman by the crew of Philippine patrol boat  manned by personnel from BFAR and the Philippine Coast Guard be put down in writing.

“We want a written agreement between the two teams and announce it at the same time to start the investigation here by the Philippine team and our prosecutors in Manila,” he said.