Phl vessels patrolling in WPS ‘sufficient’—navy official

A military official said the Philippine Navy and Philippine Coast Guard have a “sufficient number of vessels” patrolling within the country’s exclusive economic zone in the West Philippine Sea.

“We have a sufficient number of ships from the Philippine Navy and the Philippine Coast Guard and other players in the maritime domain, the exact number of which I cannot divulge. Suffice it say, given what we have we are good at it, given more we can perform even better,” Philippine Navy spokesperson for WPS, Commodore Roy Vincent Trinidad, told reporters in a press conference in Camp Aguinaldo on Tuesday.

Trinidad confirmed there’s an increasing number of Chinese Coast Guard and militia vessels roaming around its vast claims in the entire South China Sea, including the Philippine EEZ in WPS.

“From the early 90s, we have noticed that China was trying to beef up their forces there, from the first part of 2000—we have seen them being more aggressive, and that has carried on until now,” he said.

Trinidad lamented that China’s insistence on claiming the entire SCS is not covered by international law and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

“Overall, the actions of China are not within the bounds of international law, not within what UNCLOS would expect of a responsible player in the maritime domain,—these are all below the threshold of kinetic action, that’s why we call them grey zone actions, grey zone activities, they will be short to kinetic action and we will expect that this will just continue, harassments, laser pointing probably, cutting across the bow, water cannon,” he said.

“These are part of the challenges we encounter each time we resupply troops only in Ayungin shoal, there are eight other features that we do regular rotation and resupply missions,” he added.

The navy official noted that the Armed Forces of the Philippines so far has "unimpeded access" to other eight key features in the WPS despite the presence of Chinese ships and other foreign vessels in the area.

Citing the latest monitoring of AFP, Trinidad said 200 vessels operated by Chinese maritime militia, 15 to 25 ships from the People’s Liberation Army-Navy, and 10 to 15 China Coast Guard vessels, were spotted swarming in the WPS.

He, however, emphasized, “at any one time, it is difficult to give an exact number, considering the ships there are in constant motion.”