Eight Philippine Coast Guards (PCGs) were sentenced to 14 years jail-term as the Court of Appeals (CA) affirmed its December 2021 ruling, upholding the Manila Regional Trial Court’s September 2019 decision, in the 2013 murder of Hong Shi Cheng, a Taiwanese fisherman who was shot dead while riding his vessel in Batanes, the Philippine media reported.
The PCG personnel’s motion for reconsideration was scrapped on the grounds that the accused-appellant lack new arguments to support their claim, as in their inability to prove that the vessel transporting the fisherman rammed the PCG boat in the Balintang Channel off Batanes, thus dismissing their alibi of firing at the victim’s vessel.
The accused-appellant, in their motion, argued that they acted to fulfill their duty and that the prosecutors provided zero proof that they shot the victim.