The Philippine Coast Guard continues to send radio challenges against the China Coast Guard 5901 vessel, the world's largest coast guard ship also known as "The Monster", anchored within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.
PCG spokesperson for the West Philippine Sea, Commodore Jay Tarriela, said the CCG’s 165-meter monster ship is trying to “intimidate” the country’s BRP Teresa Magbanua to leave the shoal.
“The Philippine Coast Guard will not be intimidated or not going to pull back and direct Teresa Magbanua to go back to Palawan,” Tarriela told reporters during a news forum in Quezon City on Saturday.
Tarriela said the monster ship has been anchored at Escoda Shoal since 3 July, maintaining a close proximity to the BRP Teresa Magbanua, the PCG’s largest and most modern ship as of present.
“The distance between the two vessels is less than 800 yards, with the Chinese ship positioned on the starboard beam of the PCG vessel,” he added.
“BRP Teresa Magbanua has constantly radio challenged [ship] 5901 of China Coast Guard since it arrived,” he further stressed.
According to Tarriela, the PCG’s radio challenges were being sent to the monster ship’ “every time” when they exerted “unusual activities such as deploying of rigid-hull inflatable boats.”
He said the Chinese vessel was not directly responding to BRP Teresa Magbanua’s radio challenges, but kept on insisting “that they are carrying out a legitimate Coast Guard operation as well.”
“We have been challenging their presence through radio calls — we are telling them that the place where they anchored is actually part of the exclusive economic zone of our country and that they do not have jurisdiction in that area,” Tarriela said.
“They are not responding to our question as to their intention but what they are saying is that what they are doing is a legitimate operation since they have sovereignty over these waters,” he added.
The Escoda shoal lies 75 nautical miles from the coast of Palawan and is considered within the country’s 200 nautical miles EEZ.
Tarriela said the PCG successfully tracked the movements of "The Monster" using Canada's Dark Vessel Detection technology.
On 1 July, the ship departed from Hainan and entered the Philippine EEZ on the following day.
On 3 July, the Chinese ship traveled directly to Ayungin Shoal and later proceeded to Panganiban Reef.
After a few hours, the ship was detected once again, this time heading towards Escoda Shoal.
On 5 July, the CCG vessel was spotted deploying a small boat.
The PCG deployed BRP Teresa Magbanua on 18 April to monitor the suspected Chinese reclamation works in the area.
Earlier in June, the PCG encountered an intense confrontation with the CCG in the disputed Escoda Shoal after the Chinese forces attempted to block a Philippine marine scientific research mission at Escoda Shoal.