MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine Navy monitored 56 Chinese coast guard and naval vessels around four key features in the West Philippine Sea in August, including People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) warships that were absent from the military’s monitoring tally released the previous week, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) said on Tuesday.
AFP spokesperson for the West Philippine Sea Rear Adm. Roy Vincent Trinidad (Reserve) said the monthly figures provide a broader picture than the military’s monitoring last week which recorded no PLAN warship.
“Yes… we mentioned last week that monitoring over a one-week period is still not sufficient to give us a good ground for assessment,” Trinidad said at a press briefing at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City.
“What we have reported last week is that there were zero monitored number of PLA warships. For this week, we are releasing the monthly monitoring,” he said.
The AFP’s August tally includes both PLAN and China Coast Guard (CCG) vessels monitored around Ayungin (Second Thomas) Shoal, Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal, Escoda (Sabina) Shoal and Pag-asa (Thitu) Island.
At Panatag, also known as Bajo de Masinloc, the Navy monitored 23 Chinese vessels, including nine PLAN ships and 14 CCG vessels.
It is about 220 kilometers west of Luzon.
At Ayungin Shoal, it monitored 18 vessels — one PLAN and 17 CCG ships. It is a low-tide elevation about 194 km west of Palawan where the Philippines maintains the grounded BRP Sierra Madre as a military outpost.
The Navy also monitored nine Chinese vessels around Escoda Shoal, including four PLAN and five CCG vessels. The low-tide elevation lies about 140 km west of Palawan.
At Pag-asa, six Chinese vessels were spotted — one PLAN and five CCG. Pag-asa, about 480 km west of Palawan, is the largest Philippine-held feature in the Kalayaan Island Group and is home to a civilian community.
Trinidad said the military is not yet drawing conclusions from the difference between the weekly and monthly figures.
“Before we give any assessment, we would like to look at it from a bigger perspective so that we could give a more accurate assessment,” he said.
He said the military would need more data before determining whether or not the figures indicate a particular trend.
“Probably after a month or three months, we could give a better appreciation, a better assessment,” Trinidad said.
The AFP said the purpose of its monthly monitoring is to provide a broader picture of Chinese maritime activity in areas within the Philippines’ maritime domain.
“The focus of the monthly monitoring is to give everybody a picture of the continued illegal presence of the CCG and PLAN,” Trinidad said.
The August figures were part of the Navy’s wider maritime monitoring operations.
The AFP also said it monitored 18,534 vessels in areas of interest from Aug. 1 to 31, of which 15,989 were foreign and 2,545 were domestic.
Of the total, 12,502 vessels responded to radio challenges from Philippine forces, while 6,032 did not respond, according to the AFP.
The military said the continued presence of Chinese vessels in the areas challenges Philippine sovereign rights and jurisdiction and contributes to tensions in the South China Sea.
Beijing claims nearly all of the South China Sea, including waters within the Philippines’ EEZ in the West Philippine Sea.
It has rejected the 2016 arbitral award, which invalidated the legal basis of its sweeping “nine-dash line” claim in the South China Sea, later expanded to a “10-dash line.” /gsg
The post 56 Chinese vessels monitored in West PH Sea in August appeared first on Inquirer.net.
