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BFAR team suspends research off Pagasa due to Chinese harassment

The Philippine Coast Guard said Saturday it had suspended a scientific survey in the contested West Philippine Sea due to “dangerous” harassment by Chinese navy and coast guard vessels and aircraft.

Three Chinese coast guard vessels and four smaller boats made “aggressive maneuvers” toward two Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources ships and their inflatable boats on Friday near Pagasa (Thitu) island, according to Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) Spokesperson Commodore Jay Tarriela.

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The vessels were transporting scientists intending to conduct a “marine scientific survey and sand sampling” at a sandbar off Pagasa, the largest Philippine-occupied island in the disputed Spratlys chain, he said.

Courtesy: Philippine Coast Guard

Pagasa lies about 430 kilometers from the major Philippine island of Palawan and more than 900 kilometers from China’s nearest major landmass of Hainan Island. Chinese forces garrison the Subi Reef near Pagasa.

Tarriela also said a Chinese navy helicopter “hovered at an unsafe altitude” above the fisheries agency’s inflatable boats on Friday, “creating hazardous conditions due to the propeller wash.”

“As a result of this continuous harassment and the disregard for safety exhibited by the Chinese maritime forces”, the Coast Guard said it and the fisheries agency “regrettably suspended their survey operations and were unable to collect sand samples” from the unoccupied sandbars of Sandy Cay off Pagasa.

Despite the “dangerous confrontations,” no accidents occurred, the coast guard added.

The incident happened on the same day that Philippine forces resupplied and rotated without incident troops manning a derelict navy vessel grounded on the Ayungin Shoal (Second Thomas Shoal), the foreign affairs department said.

The government had deliberately grounded the vessel on the reef to assert its claim over the area.

This was the fifth rotation and reprovisioning (RORE) mission conducted under the ambit of the understanding reached between the Philippines and the People’s Republic of China on principles and approaches for conducting RORE missions in Ayungin Shoal to avoid misunderstandings and miscalculations, without prejudice to national positions. 

“It demonstrates that effective diplomacy plays a leading role in West Philippine Sea issues and creates pathways to innovative approaches that help manage the situation, without compromising the Philippine national interest,” the DFA said.

The government raised the alarm this month over Chinese coast guard ships patrolling closer to the main island of Luzon, calling it an “intimidation tactic” by Beijing to discourage Filipino fishing.

China rejected the allegation, with a foreign ministry spokesman saying the patrols were “in accordance with the law.”

China claims nearly all of the disputed waterway, brushing off rival claims from other countries — including the Philippines — and an international arbitration tribunal ruling that its assertion has no legal basis.

In recent months, China has deployed navy and coast guard vessels in a bid to bar the Philippines from strategically important reefs and islands in the disputed area. With AFP

Editor’s Note: This is an updated article. Originally posted with the headline “Chinese vessels, helicopter harass BFAR ships conducting scientific survey.”

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