The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) has deployed BRP Teresa Magbanua, one of its largest patrol vessels to keep a close eye on the reported illegal activities of China on Escoda Shoal—a sandbank located just 75 nautical miles from the coastline of Palawan.
In a news release on Sunday, Malacañang said this was done to intensify the Philippines’ vigilance in the area amid China’s brazen attempt at creating artificial islands by destroying coral reefs in the West Philippine Sea (WPS).
According to PCG spokesman for WPS Commodore Jay Tarriela, two smaller patrol vessels—BRP Cabra and BRP Malabrigo—have also been doing rotational deployment in the same area to help the government document Beijing’s alarming expansionist agenda.
Tarriela said that they have monitored a total of 34 Chinese Maritime Militia Vessels on Escoda Shoal with the People’s Liberation Army Navy vessels and helicopters and four other China Coast Guard vessels.
What the PCG is “extensively monitoring,” Tarriela said, are the three Chinese Research vessels, including its “mother boat” that receive data and information from two small boats swarming around Escoda Shoal apparently conducting exploratory activities.
Tarriela said that they have already sent rigid hull inflatable boats to intercept, or at least get closer to the Chinese vessels.
Chester Cabalza, president of Manila-based think tank International Development and Security Cooperation, meanwhile said China’s supposed reclamation attempt in Escoda Shoal “is a threat to Philippine security.”
Cabalza, quoted by ABS CBN News, said China has been eyeing Escoda as an extension of Panganiban Reef (Mischief Reef), which Chinese forces occupied in 1995.
“There were attempts in the past years where Beijing wanted to possess the shoal considering its strategic value to their claims in the South China Sea,” Cabalza told ABS-CBN News.
“The tendency is, of course, it becomes a buffer zone. If there is trouble, they are so close to us,” he added.
Following a three-week survey, Tarriela earlier said crushed corals had been discovered dumped at Escoda.
He said the dumping may be a prelude to the emergence of an artificial island.
Escoda is a barangay and part of the Kalayaan Group of Islands, according to Cabalza.
“This is an attempt by China to deliberately occupy a shoal that is administratively, geographically and legally owned by the province of Palawan,” Tarriela, quoted by ABS CBN News, said.
The Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague in 2016 rejected the basis for nearly all of China’s expansive maritime and territorial claims in the South China Sea.
It determined that China’s “nine-dash line” maritime claim was inconsistent with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and that Beijing had violated the Philippines’ sovereign rights within its 200-nautical-mile exclusive cconomic zone.