The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) on Wednesday accused Chinese patrol vessels of blocking two of its boats in the disputed West Philippine Sea, describing their actions as “very dangerous”.
PCG spokesman Commodore Jay Tarriela confirmed that multiple Chinese Coast Guard (CCG) vessels, militia boats, and People’s Liberation Army-Navy (PLA-N) ships have encroached into Philippine waters of the disputed portions of the South China Sea (SCS).
China claims almost the entire SCS despite rival claims from other Southeast Asian countries including the Philippines, Vietnam, and Malaysia.
Chinese coast guard and navy vessels routinely block or tail Philippine ships patrolling the contested waters, Philippine authorities asserted.
The PCG said the latest incident happened on June 30 during a regular operation to re-supply marines stationed in a run-down navy ship grounded at the Second Thomas Shoal to assert Manila’s territorial claim in the waters.
As they neared the shoal, the two PCG boats assigned as escorts for the navy mission were approached by two Chinese coast guard vessels.
One of the Chinese boats came within 100 yards (90 meters) of the BRP Malabrigo’s bow, forcing its commanding officer to slow down to avoid a collision, Tarriela told reporters.
“They dangerously conducted different maneuvers, even crossing the bow of the Philippine Coast Guard vessels and that kind of distance is very dangerous because that’s already prone to collision,” Tarriela said.
Manila refers to waters immediately to its west as the West Philippine Sea.
The Chinese embassy in Manila did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A similar incident happened in April when a Chinese coast guard ship cut off the Philippine patrol vessel Malapascua as it carried journalists near the Second Thomas Shoal.
An AFP team was on another coast guard vessel and witnessed the near collision. In that incident, the Malapascua’s commanding officer Rodel Hernandez said the Chinese ship came within 45 meters of his boat and only his quick decisions avoided the steel-hulled vessels crashing into each other.
“So we have three China Coast Guard (CCG) vessels that have been monitored; we also monitored six Chinese maritime militia and two PLA Navy vessels with bow numbers 629 and 620,” the PCG said on national television.
Tarriela recounted that during their operations with the Armed Forces of the Philippines Western Command (AFP-WESCOM), they were blocked by the CCG and monitored by the PLA-N as they sailed towards Ayungin shoal for a routine resupply mission for Filipino troops stationed in BRP Sierra Madre.
“The PCG last June 29 went to Escoda Shoal – the ships we used were the BRP Malabrigo and the BRP Malapascua or MRB 4402 and MRB 4403. The intention of these two vessels is to support the naval operation of the Armed Forces of the Philippines as you said, in Ayungin Shoal. So, they were deployed in Escoda Shoal and then on June 30 when those two boats arrived to be escorted by the PCG vessel, we accompanied them to Ayungin Shoal,” Tarriela said during the televised public briefing.
“Two coast guard vessels reached the distance of 10.59 nautical miles from Ayungin Shoal, we spotted these two China Coast Guard vessels. What they did is they came close to our two Philippine Coasts Guard vessels with an approximate distance of 100 yards,” he added.
Tarriela also clarified earlier reports that the PCG ships were pursued by the Chinese vessels in the area.
“Let me first correct the statement that we are pursued. We have not been pursued– actually, the Philippine Coast Guard vessels are being blocked to enter, to come close to Ayungin Shoal because we are supporting the naval operation ng Armed Forces of the Philippines during that time.”
Tarriela also said radio challenges were made by the Chinese ships towards the Philippine vessels and has violated some provisions of the
“While at the same time, what our two coast guard vessels did to prevent this possible collision is, they have to decrease the speed while at the same time they also have to respond to the radio challenges given to them by two China Coast Guard vessels. And our Philippine Coast Guard vessel, they were also challenging the presence of these two China Coast Guard vessels.”
“China Coast Guard is also doing the radio challenge to the Philippine Coast Guard. In response, we are also challenging their presence this was inside our exclusive economic zone of the Philippines, as to them, they are not supposed to be within our exclusive economic zone and that they are carrying out dangerous maneuvers and they are violating the convention on prevention of the collision regulation.”
Tarriela also noted that a CCG vessel patrolling the Bajo de Masinloc was forced to go the Ayungin shoal just to strengthen their force that was making aggressive actions towards legitimate owners of the islands of the WPS which was acknowledged by the international community.
“What is interesting here about China Coast Guard 3103, is that it came from Bajo de Masinloc. They traveled all the way from Bajo de Masinloc to Ayungin Shoal to reinforce these two China Coast Guard vessels,” he added
“However, the PCG has expressed concerns regarding the behavior of the Chinese Coast Guard vessels (CCGVs). It appears that the CCGVs are exerting additional effort to prevent the PCG from reaching Ayungin Shoal.”
He also showed photos captured by their personnel onboard one of the ships which was with the operations that a Chinese Coast Guard vessel with a bow number 4203 which was part of the Zhaojun-class cutters of the CCG, making an aggressive actions towards the BRP Malabrigo (4402). With AFP