Two Chinese officials on Wednesday visited the 12 Chinese fishermen accused of poaching and detained by Philippine officials in the restricted waters of Tubbataha Reef.

Consul General Shen Zicheng and Third Secretary Li Jian of the Chinese embassy in the country met with officials from the Western Command of the Armed Forces and requested the release of the 12 fishermen, local media reported Wednesday.

Calls to the Chinese embassy went unanswered on Wednesday with no further details released.

The Chinese vessel, with 12 crew members, was found aground in the reef in the Sulu Sea on Monday, coast guard spokesman Lieutenant Commander Arman Balilo told AFP.

Balilo said the boat was pulled off the reef on Tuesday and then towed to the nearby island province of Palawan, where the fishermen would be detained and questioned by authorities.

"If local laws were violated, they will be punished. But Chinese authorities can also make sure that the fishermen's rights are well protected," Fu Kuncheng, an international law expert affiliated with Xiamen University, told the Global Times.

Balilo was quoted as saying that Chinese fishermen frequently strayed into Philippine waters, but this was the first time in recent years that they had been detected as far south as Tubbataha.

Fu suggested a union made up of fishery industry and law experts should be established to handle such disputes.

"Sometimes Chinese fishermen are punished for their violation of local laws, but most of the time, they are also illegally punished, so they need a union of law and business experts to help them. If exhaustion of local remedies fails to do so, governments can step in," Fu added.

However, Chinese ships are not the only ones that have sailed into Tubbataha.

A US Navy minesweeper also ran aground in the reef in January, and salvage crews had to break it down into pieces in a delicate operation that ended on March 29.

Agencies contributed to this story