Caught in the act A snapshot captures the high-stakes game as China Coast Guard personnel onboard a rigid-hulled inflatable boat (right) trails a Philippine fishing boat during a Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources mission to bring supplies to fishermen near Scarborough Shoal in the disputed West Philippine Sea.
PCG/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
The Philippines reported a second attempt by the Chinese coast guard in two weeks to block a resupply vessel bringing aid to Filipino fishermen in the Scarborough Shoal.
The Philippine Coast Guard on Sunday said that the BRP Datu Sanday was harassed by a China Coast Guard vessel and three other Chinese ships on 22 February in the common fishing ground also known as Bajo de Masinloc and Panatag Shoal.
PCG spokesperson for the West Philippine Sea, Commodore Jay Tarriela, revealed that three of the four Chinese vessels came within a hundred meters of the bow of Datu Sanday.
The Chinese ships shadowed and allegedly conducted “dangerous maneuvers” and transponder jamming against the Filipino vessel, he added.
“Despite these maneuvers, the skipper of BRP Datu Sanday exhibited excellent seamanship skills and managed to evade the blocking attempts,” Tarriela said.
A week earlier, the Philippine Coast Guard said the BRP Datu Tamblot had a similar encounter.
Flashpoint
Scarborough Shoal — a triangular chain of reefs and rocks — has been a flashpoint between the countries since China seized it from the Philippines in 2012.
Since then, Beijing has deployed patrol boats that Manila says harass Philippine vessels and prevent Filipino fishermen from accessing a fish-rich lagoon there.
China’s state-run Global Times said on Saturday that the China Coast Guard had repelled the Datu Sanday “when the vessel illegally intruded into waters adjacent to China’s Huangyan Island,” using the Chinese name for the shoal.
Scarborough Shoal lies 240 kilometers (150 miles) west of the Philippines’ main island of Luzon and nearly 900 kilometers from the nearest major Chinese land mass of Hainan.
China claims almost the entire South China Sea, which overlaps the West Philippine Sea and has ignored an international tribunal ruling that its assertions have no legal basis.
Tense standoffs between China and the Philippines around disputed reefs last year saw collisions and Chinese ships blasting water cannons at Philippine boats.
AFP with Lade Jean Kabagani
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