Following an order from President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to stay put in the disputed waters of the West Philippine Sea, the Philippine Coast Guard yesterday said it had delivered much-needed supplies to Filipino fishermen out on extended fishing sorties.
PCG District Palawan delivered the aid to Filipino fishermen aboard the F/B John Jerry and F/B Maricris and Tessie who were on a prolonged fishing sortie in the WPS on Sunday, 18 February.
The crew of the BRP Sindangan and BRP Cabra handed food packs, drinking water and medicines over to the fishermen.
The fishermen thanked the PCG members for their unrelenting commitment to ensuring their welfare amid the continuing harassment by Chinese militia and coast guard vessels.
The PCG on Saturday said it monitored a People’s Liberation Army, or PLA, Navy vessel for the first time at Bajo de Masinloc or Scarborough Shoal, where the Philippines and China had a tense faceoff in 2012.
A 2016 arbitral ruling affirmed that the WPS, including Bajo de Masinloc, is within the Philippines’ 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone. The ruling said that China’s claim to nearly the entire South China Sea, which overlaps the WPS, was without basis.
PCG spokesperson for the West Philippine Sea, Commodore Jay Tarriela, said the PLA Navy vessel was monitored by the BRP Tamblot of the the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, or BFAR, early last week.
The PLA Navy vessel did not venture into the 12 nautical miles of the Philippines’ territorial sea, he said.
However, four China Coast Guard vessels — with body numbers 3063, 3064, 3302 and 3105 — were spotted in the vicinity of Bajo de Masinloc during the BFAR patrol.
Tarriela said those were the same CCG vessels that had previously blocked a PCG vessel entering the shoal.