Presidential Office Spokesperson Li Jia-Fei (李佳霏) stated on the morning of May 15 that President Ma Ying-jeou was extremely dissatisfied with how the government of the Philippines has responded to the four demands put forward by the ROC government on May 11 following the killing of a Taiwanese fisherman by a Philippine government vessel. Our government had demanded that the government of the Philippines take the following actions by no later than 12:01 a.m. on May 15: issue a formal apology; provide compensation for the losses; promptly and thoroughly investigate the incident and severely punish those responsible for the killing; and initiate fishery agreement negotiations between the two countries as soon as possible. President Ma stated that the person sent by the government of the Philippines to convey its response had not been granted sufficient authority to act as its negotiator. The president further indicated that the other side had not showed sufficient good faith, and had waffled back and forth in its position. For these reasons, he expressed extreme dissatisfaction and said he could not accept such a perfunctory response from the government of the Philippines. After the conclusion of a 7:00 a.m. National Security Council meeting, the president issued an order for the ROC government to immediately take the following three actions: freeze the applications of Filipino laborers seeking to work in Taiwan; recall the ROC's representative stationed in the Philippines; and request that the representative of the Philippines stationed in Taiwan return to the Philippines to help with the proper resolution of this incident.
Li Jia-Fei further indicated that during the meeting President Ma had stated that if the government of the Philippines fails to satisfy the ROC's four demands by 6:00 p.m. on May 15, the ROC government will adopt a second round of eight sanctions agreed upon in an interministerial meeting. The president had also instructed the Executive Yuan to hold a 10:00 a.m. international press conference at which Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) would head a group of cabinet members in communicating the government's position.