After severe weather conditions caused by a series of tropical cyclones and the enhanced southwest monsoon (habagat) in the Philippines, several Chinese Coast Guard (CCG) vessels returned to Scarborough Shoal (Bajo de Masinloc) on Saturday, according to the West Philippine Sea (WPS) monitor.
Sealight Director Ray Powell told Manila Standard the ships are now patrolling within 25 to 30 nautical miles (nm) of the shoal.
The number of foreign coast guard ships varied as one of them may be returning home, while the other turned off its automatic identification system (AIS).
“Four of the five CCG ships came back to the shoal within the past 24 hours. The fifth (CCG 3104) has since gone AIS-dark,” Powell said.
A total of six Chinese warships are also expected to return by Sunday morning.
“They are patrolling around the shoal within a radius of 25 to 30nm, resuming their previous exclusion zone,” Powell said.
Bajo de Masinloc is located 124nm off Masinloc, Zambales, and is considered within the Philippines’ 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ), based on the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
