PCG drives out Chinese vessels

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) said it was able to drive out a Chinese vessel and 24 smaller boats that were surrounding Kota Island in the West Philippine Sea on Monday.

PCG spokesperson Rear Adm. Jay Tarriela said the smaller boats were deployed around the Philippine-occupied island apparently to gather information on PCG activities in the area.

“I’m not convinced that what they’re really after is fishing,” Tarriela told reporters via Zoom on Tuesday, noting it was the first time the PCG had monitored as many as 24 sampans that came as close as 274 meters to Kota.

READ: China must not go unchallenged in the Indo-Pacific

The biggest craft, a Chinese maritime militia vessel tagged by the PCG as CMMV 9622, appeared to be a fishing boat and while the movement of the 24 sampans seemed “intentionally designed,” he said.

Also known as Loaita Island, Kota is part of the Kalayaan Island Group (KIG) in the Spratlys. It is under the local administration of Kalayaan, a municipality of Palawan province. The main island, Pag-asa, serves as the seat of the municipal government.

READ: Batanes: Another of China’s Territorial Narratives

Radio message, hand signals

Around 11 a.m. on Sept. 28, five PCG personnel assigned to Coast Guard Station Kota boarded a rubber boat to order CMMV 9622 to leave, issuing radio challenges as they approached.

When the militia vessel did not respond, the team began approaching each sampan, telling their crews to leave.

The sampans complied and moved closer to the CMMV 9622, after which the entire group withdrew.

The crew on the militia vessel was last seen responding to hand signals from the PCG team before leaving, Tarriela said, noting that the whole encounter lasted less then an hour.

Tarriela said the smaller boats appeared to have no fishing nets or other fishing gear, thus the PCG suspected that they were deployed for surveillance and just taking instructions from CMMV 9622. 

The incident came days after Chinese vessels interfered with a Philippine rotation and resupply (Rore) mission to Ayungin (Second Thomas) Shoal, some 190 kilometers southeast of Kota.

The mission was aborted, but Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. on Saturday vowed the Rore missions will continue.China claims sovereignty over nearly the entire South China Sea, including waters within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.

In 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague ruled in favor of the Philippines, following Manila’s arbitral case three years earlier challenging Beijing’s sweeping maritime claims. China has refused to recognize the ruling. /cb

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