Filipino fisherman chased by China coast guard in disputed waters
FILE PHOTO: This photo taken on 22 September 2023 shows a wooden boat, with Philippine fisherman Arnel Satam on board, drawfed by a Chinese coast guard vessel after he was intercepted for attempting to enter Scarborough Shoal in disputed waters of the South China Sea. In a high-seas chase lasting several minutes, Satam tries in vain to outrun the faster boats and slip inside the ring of reefs controlled by China, where fish are more abundant. The fishermen complained that China's actions at Scarborough Shoal were robbing them of a key source of income and a place to shelter safely during a storm. (Photo by Ted ALJIBE / AFP)
Filipino fisherman Arnel Satam guns the motor of his tiny wooden boat as he makes a dash for the shallow waters of Scarborough Shoal in the disputed South China Sea, with Chinese coast guard speedboats in hot pursuit.
In a high-seas chase lasting several minutes, Satam tries in vain to outrun the faster boats in the hope of slipping inside the ring of reefs controlled by China, where fish are more abundant.
Friday's pursuit was witnessed by AFP journalists on board the Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources ship BRP Datu Bankaw, which was delivering food, water and fuel to Filipino fishermen plying the contested waters, sometimes for weeks on end.
The fishermen complained that China's actions at Scarborough Shoal were robbing them of a key source of income and a place to shelter safely during a storm.
"I want to fish in there," a defiant Satam, 54, told journalists as he stood barefoot on his light blue outrigger bearing a Superman "S" emblem.
"I do this thing often. They already chased me earlier today," he said, adding the Chinese speedboats had bumped his vessel.
"I just laughed at them."
Scarborough Shoal is 240 kilometres (150 miles) west of the Philippines' main island of Luzon and nearly 900 kilometres from the nearest major Chinese land mass of Hainan.
Under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which China helped negotiate, countries have jurisdiction over the natural resources within about 200 nautical miles (370 kilometres) of their shore.
China, which claims sovereignty over almost the entire South China Sea, snatched control of Scarborough Shoal from the Philippines in 2012.
Since then, it has deployed coast guard and other vessels to block or restrict access to the fishing ground that has been tapped by generations of Filipinos.
Philippine officials also accused the Chinese coast guard of laying a 300-metre (-yard) long floating barrier across the entrance to the shoal shortly before the BRP Datu Bankaw arrived.