Shipping firm claims full responsibility over safety of crew members

The Samarinda Port Authority said shipping company PP Rusdianto Bersaudara, whose tugboat was hijacked last month in the Philippines and seven of its crew members were taken hostage by the Abu Sayyaf rebel group, had made written statement claiming full responsibility for the safety of its crews to obtain permit to sail to the Philippines.

Syahrial, a senior official at the Samarinda Port Authority, was quoted by Kompas.com as saying Sunday that since the incident of hijacking by the Abu Sayyaf rebel group in April of this year, shipping to the Philippines has been limited.

He said, however, that Rusdianto Bersaudara insisted on being allowed to continue its shipping activities to the Philippines to meet contractual obligations to deliver coal, and made a written statement that the company would be fully responsible over the safety of its crew members.

He said that since the April hijacking incident, only Rusdianto Bersaudara has kept on sailing to the Philippines waters.

The Ministry of Transportation late last month banned Indonesian-flag ships from travelling to the Philippines after the tugboat belonging to Rusdianto Bersaudara was hijacked by the Abu Sayyaf rebel group.

Coal industry experts said that the suspension of coal export to the Philippines would not cause much impact to the industry as annual export volume to the Southeast Asian nation is relatively small.

According to the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, coal export volume to the Philippines last year totaled 7.6 million tons, down 3.6 percent from 7.9 million tons in 2014. Export volume in the first quarter of this year reached 300,000 tons. (*)