A total of 23 China ships were monitored in different key areas in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) last week, a high-ranking Philippine Navy official said Tuesday.
In a latest briefing in Camp Aguinaldo, Philippine Navy Spokesperson for WPS Rear Admiral Roy Vincent Trinidad said there were seven China Coast Guard (CCG) and People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) ships spotted at Bajo de Masinloc.
Four CCG and two PLAN ships in Ayungin Shoal, one PLAN ship in Sabina Shoal and one CCG and one PLAN in Pag-asa Islands.
“The figures for last week were similar to these 22 except that on the 19th, 20th and 21st the ships of the Chinese Coast Guard and the PLA Navy in Bajo de Masinloc had to secure because of the inclement weather,” Trinidad said.
Sealight Director Ray Powell last week said six Chinese warships are also expected to return by Sunday morning.
“They are patrolling around the shoal within a radius of 25–30 nautical miles, resuming their previous exclusion zone,” Powell earlier said.
Bajo de Masinloc is located 124 nautical miles off Masinloc, Zambales, and is considered within the Philippines’ 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone, based on the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
