MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) has spotted a swarm of more than 100 Chinese vessels, including a warship and coast guard ships, during its patrol in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) from April 18 to 24.
In a statement, the PCG said the BRP Malapascua and BRP Malabrigo counted over 100 militia vessels, a corvette class naval ship of the People’s Liberation Army and two Chinese coast guard vessels.
The PCG issued the update on its patrol almost a week after one of the two ships figured in a near-collision with a Chinese coast guard vessel in the vicinity of Ayungin Shoal, which is within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and where a detachment of Marines is stationed on a grounded World War II-era transport ship.
But China’s foreign ministry said it was the PCG vessels that made a “premeditated and provocative action.”
The PCG’s patrol covered the waters around Escoda Shoal, Del Pilar Reef, Lawak, Patag, Likas, Parola, Pag-asa, Tizzard Bank, Julian Felipe Reef and Ayungin Shoal.
The PCG said its ships drove away four maritime militia vessels engaged in fishing activities some four nautical miles from Pag-asa Island.
However, 18 Chinese militia vessels detected near Escoda Shoal ignored the PCG’s radio challenge and refused to leave the area.
Seventeen groups of Chinese maritime militia ships in the vicinity of Julian Felipe Reef also ignored the PCG men sent on inflatable boats to try to disperse them.
On April 21, a Chinese warship with bow number 549 confronted PCG vessels through radio challenge some seven nautical miles from Pag-asa Island. The PCG vessels stood their ground, demanding that the Chinese leave the area instead.
On the morning of April 23, two Chinese coast guard vessels made dangerous maneuver s near the Malapascua and Malabrigo in the vicinity of Ayungin Shoal. One of the Chinese vessels almost collided with the Malapascua.
In a tweet, PCG-WPS spokesman Commodore Jay Tarriela said it’s the Chinese that were clearly stirring trouble in the South China Sea.
“China contends that the United States is escalating tensions in the South China Sea, and I am curious how they would characterize these actions. Evidently, the Chinese Coast Guard is performing dangerous maneuver that clearly jeopardize the safety of persons on board a smaller PCG vessel,” he said.
PCG’s fault, says Beijing
Asked about the incident at a regular press briefing yesterday, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said the Philippine boats had “intruded” without China’s permission.
“The Chinese coast guard vessel safeguarded China’s territorial sovereignty and maritime order, in accordance with the law, while taking timely measures to avoid the dangerous approach of Philippine vessels and to avoid a collision,” Mao said.
“It was a premeditated and provocative action for the Philippine vessel to barge into the waters of Ren’ai Jiao with journalists on board, the aim was to deliberately find fault and take the opportunity to hype up the incident,” she added, calling Ayungin Shoal by the name assigned by Beijing.
After confirming the April 23 incident, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) has again called on China to respect the legal rights of the Philippines to conduct patrols in West Philippine Sea.
“First of all, I would like to emphasize that the Philippines has the legal right to carry out routine maritime patrols in our territorial waters and EEZ,” DFA spokesperson Ma. Teresita Daza said in a statement yesterday.
“The deployment of the BRP Malabrigo and BRP Malapascua in the West Philippine Sea from April 18 to 24 was one such mission,” she stressed.
“In terms of DFA’s perspective, every time there’s an incident report, we await the official report coming from all relevant agencies – PCG is one of them. And the DFA actually studies and analyzes, and makes an assessment of it. Based on this incident report, an appropriate diplomatic action is taken,” Daza said at a Palace press briefing.
Asked whether President Marcos has been briefed about the incident, Daza said the Chief Executive has been consistent with his directive to always uphold the country’s interest.
“And in terms of the South China Sea, the President has always been consistent in saying that we will uphold our sovereignty and safeguard our sovereign rights and interest in the South China. And we will do this through diplomacy, military’s law enforcement and public diplomacy action,” she said.
The Chinese interference in the routine patrol mission of the two ships was totally inconsistent with freedom of navigation, she maintained.
“A number of documented incidents also involved highly dangerous maneuvers that were contrary to standard navigational practices,” she pointed out.
“We again call on China to respect the Philippines’ rights over the West Philippine Sea, as provided by UNCLOS, and refrain from actions that may cause an untoward incident,” Daza said, referring to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
Alliance
Senators, meanwhile, renewed yesterday their call for the country to lead in forming a broader security alliance in the region to counter China’s aggressiveness.
“The bullying of the Chinese is too much, it was good that our Coast Guard was able to drive away the Chinese vessel, so we fought somehow,” Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, chair of the Senate committee on national defense and security, told reporters.
He said the country obviously cannot fight back militarily. “We have to seek help from our allies,” Estrada said.
Sen. Risa Hontiveros condemned what she described as “the latest in a continuous, unbroken and apparently unrepentant string of incidents that China should be accountable for.”
She said she expects the DFA to file a diplomatic protest at once, as she called on Malacañang to condemn, in the strongest terms, “China’s ceaseless intimidation, torment and threats.”
“At this time, it’s only right to actively and boldly continue in the direction of building bigger alliances. A broader alliance is a better alliance. Let us urgently work on building this bigger coalition of countries who are against China’s misbehavior, who uphold our victory at The Hague and who want to preserve peace and stability in the region,” Hontiveros said.
Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III said all concerned parties should work hard to prevent a repeat of the incident. He said all states with claims in the South China Sea and the West Philippine Sea must come up with a code of conduct.
“Otherwise there will always be incidents like this where one party will appear to be a ‘Goliath’, because it is in reality a giant country, and be labeled as a bully. It is to the best interest of all parties to start behaving like civilized, respectful and reasonable neighbors. Start dialogue. Make concrete gains, no matter how small,” Pimentel said.
“We cannot afford to fire the first shot that would trigger a shooting war. My advice to our Coast Guard is to maximize their escape and evasion tactics and remember always that patience is a virtue,” Sen. Ronald dela Rosa said.
Not enough
At the House of Representatives, Deputy Minority Leader France Castro also condemned the Chinese’s hostile maneuver in Ayungin Shoal.
“Steps must be undertaken so that this will not happen again, like lobbying the Asian Parliamentary Assembly and the Inter-Parliamentary Union to condemn such actions,” Castro said, stressing that filing of protest is not enough.
“China is deceitful. While its diplomats say that more lines of communication are now available to avoid skirmishes and misunderstanding in the West Philippine Sea, their coast guard tried to ram our coast guard and are intent in denying us our own waters,” she said. — Michael Punongbayan, Helen Flores, Paolo Romero, Sheila Crisostomo