TIM eMagazine Issue 6 | Page 10

Maritime A PHILIPPINE FLAG CARGO VESSEL RELEASED FROM DETENTION WITH MARINA INT RVENTION Philippine Flag Cargo Vessel was released after almost five months of detention in the Independent State of Papua New Guin a (PNG). M/V FOXHOUND, a 4,593 GT steel hulled General Cargo owned and operated by Loadstar International Shipping Incorporated (LISI), was detained in Madang, Papua New Guinea after the crew abandoned the said vessel when it ran aground on 17 October 2015, whilst on passage from FONSEN Log Pond in West New Britain, PNG to Kimbe. Captain Md. Nafizul Hossain, Acting Executive Manager, Marine Operation Division, of the National Maritime Safety Authority (NMSA), which is the Flag State Administration of PNG, notified the owners and operators of M/V "Foxhound "that the said vessel will remain under detention until the completion of a marine investigation pursuant to Section 165 and 166 of the Merchant 10 Shipping Act (MSA) of 1975. On 16 February 2016, MARINA, as the Flag State Administration of the Philippines notified NMSA-PNG that it is asserting its jurisdiction over the vessel in accordance with the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Seas. MARINA, through Administrator Maxim Q. Mejia,Jr. and DOTC Secretary Joseph Emilio Aguinaldo Abaya, sent Mr. Reneil M. Pascual and Engr. Roland Kenneth M. Ballesteros of Enforcement Service (ES) to Port Moresby, PNG on 04 March 2016 to conduct investigation and assert Philippine jurisdiction on the vessel. After completion of the said Investigation, the NMSA released the M/V FOXHOUND on 30 March 2016, and allowed her to sail.