The Philippine government will help Filipino fishermen to once again enter and go fishing in the lagoon of Scarborough Shoal, also known as Bajo de Masinloc, in the West Philippine Sea.

Commodore Jay Tarriela, spokesperson of the Philippine Coast Guard for WPS, said they are collaborating with the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources and Armed Forces of the Philippines to enter the area after it removed the floating barriers installed by the Chinese Coast Guard in the southeast entrance of shoal.

"The PCG together with the BFAR, and of course with the support of our AFP, through the intelligence cooperation that we have already established, we will be able to sustain this patrol with the end goal of once again allowing fishermen to be able to go inside the lagoon," Tarriela said in a television interview on Tuesday.

"And also to open this, as you said it was already decided by the arbitral award that it is not just for Filipinos but this is a traditional fishing ground for Chinese, Vietnamese, and Filipinos. So we are going to abide by the decision of the international ruling and that is our end goal," he added.

Tarriela said it was still possible for the Philippines to assert its rights over Scarborough Shoal, after the 2012 standoff—wherein Chinese vessels began guarding the lagoon and barred Filipino ships and fishing boats from entering the area.

"As I have said, since the new administration took office, we have already strategized how can we be able to take control once again of Bajo de Masinloc, especially the lagoon," he stressed.

"For so many months, we were able to calibrate our deployment in such time that we can already anchor the distance of 300 meters," he added.

Tarriela said these efforts by the Philippines will continue.

"This will be sustained in the next coming days but I don't want to detail in public how are we going to do that," he noted.

Tarriela said the removal of the floating barriers was done upon the instructions of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and National Security Adviser Eduardo Año, who also heads the National Task Force on the WPS.

"The decisive action of the PCG to remove the barrier aligns with international law and the Philippines' sovereignty over the shoal," he said.