A Philippine civilian convoy returned to port Thursday after its advance team was able to slip past shadowing Chinese vessels to reach the Filipino fishermen at Bajo de Masinloc to deliver food packs and fuel.

“Despite China’s massive blockade, we managed to breach their illegal blockade, reaching Bajo de Masinloc to support our fishers with essential supplies,” said Rafaela David, a co-convenor of the Atin Ito convoy.

“Mission accomplished,” she added.

But China made it appear that the “breach” was something that it allowed, as it warned the Philippines that similar actions by larger vessels would not be permitted.

“If the Philippines abuses China’s goodwill and infringes upon China’s territorial sovereignty and jurisdiction, we will defend our rights and take countermeasures in accordance with the law,” Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Wenbin said in Beijing.

He said that by “goodwill,” China meant the “arrangement that allows the activities of small Filipino fishing boats near the waters off Huangyan Island.”

Beijing refers to Bajo de Masinloc, also known as Scarborough Shoal, as Huangyan Island.

Back to port

The advance team, a small boat carrying 10 people, was constantly shadowed by a Chinese Navy ship with bow number 175 after it departed Subic port on 14 May and got to 25 to 30 nautical miles of the shoal’s general vicinity on 15 May.

The team delivered about 200 food packs and 1,000 liters of fuel to the Filipino fishermen in the area.

An Agence France-Presse report quoted a convoy leader saying they were headed back to port Thursday, after ditching plans to sail to the Beijing-held reef after one of their boats was “constantly shadowed” by a Chinese vessel.

Aside from distributing supplies to Filipino fishermen, the convoy sought to assert Philippine rights in the disputed South China Sea, which Beijing claims nearly in its entirety despite an international ruling in 2016 against its assertion.

The voyage came about two weeks after Manila — which has competing claims in the sea — said China Coast Guard vessels damaged two Philippine government boats with high-pressure water cannons near Scarborough Shoal.

Driven away

“They will now proceed to the Subic fish port to mark the end of their successful mission,” the Atin Ito group said in a statement.

A Philippine Coast Guard vessel escorting the convoy was also returning to the same port, located north of Manila, the PCG said.

The convoy earlier learned from the fishers on boats near Scarborough Shoal via radio “that they had been chased away by the Chinese,” Emman Hizon, spokesman for the non-government group told AFP.

A reconnaissance flight spotted 19 Chinese vessels, including a warship and eight coast guard vessels, around the shoal on Wednesday, the PCG said.

It said the main contingent of the Filipino convoy, comprising four wooden-hulled fishing boats, was still being tracked by China Coast Guard vessels Thursday even as it sailed away from the shoal.

The shadowing began at dusk Wednesday as the boats got closer to the shoal, with the Chinese vessels issuing warnings that the participants heard over their radios.

The Chinese Embassy in Manila referred to Wenbin’s statement in Beijing when asked if Chinese vessels had driven away the convoy and the Filipino fishermen.

PCG spokesperson for the WPS, Commodore Jay Tarriela, lambasted China’s opposition to Filipino fishing boats sailing at Bajo de Masinloc.

“The People’s Republic of China is deeply concerned and angered by the presence of small Filipino fishing boats sailing through Bajo de Masinloc,” Tarriela said.

“However, they seem to overlook the fact that the international community now finds it both absurd and comical that Beijing is making such a fuss, all the while ignoring the fact that these waters fall within our exclusive economic zone,” he said.

Tarriela addressed Wenbin’s tirades, saying the convoy was “just merely exercising” the Philippines’ sovereign right to its exclusive economic zone.

“It’s a matter of simple logic that there is no provocation involved, especially considering that they are merely using indigenous boats,” he said.

Tarriela said it was China’s large flotilla of vessels that trespassed into Philippine waters.

The fish-rich reef has been a potential flashpoint since Beijing seized it from Manila in 2012. It is about 240 kilometers west of the Philippines’ main island of Luzon and nearly 900 kilometers from Hainan, the nearest major Chinese land mass.

Atin Ito convoy organizer Edicio de la Torre said Wednesday the group’s “civilian supply mission is not just about delivering supplies, it’s about reaffirming our presence and rights in our own waters.”

“The world is watching, and the narrative of rightful ownership and peaceful assertion is clearly on our side,” he added.