By Kenneth Christiane L. Basilio, Reporter
CHINESE FORCES harassed a Philippine maritime patrol aircraft near the disputed Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea, Manila’s coast guard said late on Wednesday, in the latest flare-up of tensions that have simmered since Sunday.
The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) said a Chinese fighter jet harassed its patrol plane and endangered its “safe flight path,” while a People’s Liberation Army-Navy helicopter flew directly beneath it during a maritime domain awareness (MDA) mission that spotted a floating buoy at the northern tip of Scarborough Shoal.
“The PCG’s MDA flight was subjected to aggressive interference by forces from the People’s Republic of China,” it said in a statement.
The Chinese Embassy in Manila did not immediately reply to a Viber message seeking comment.
The Wednesday encounter was the latest in a string of confrontations between the Philippines and China in the South China Sea, where tensions have persisted since Sunday’s collision between a Chinese coast guard vessel and a Philippine government ship within what Manila said were its territorial waters off Thitu Island in the Spratlys.
A China Coast Guard (CCG) spokesman said Beijing took “necessary control measures” to expel ships that allegedly intruded into the disputed Sandy Cay near Thitu, the biggest Philippine-held island in the Spratly Islands.
Competing claims between the Philippines and China in the disputed waters have led to frequent confrontations involving repeated use of water cannons and sideswiping maneuvers by Chinese vessels against Philippine ships.
Beijing claims nearly all of the South China Sea via a 1940s nine-dash line map that overlaps with the exclusive waters of the Philippines and neighbors like Vietnam and Malaysia despite a 2016 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague that voided its claims.
The maritime surveillance flight was conducted to follow up on a first buoy it had spotted earlier this week at the center of Scarborough Shoal, which the Philippines calls Panatag. Manila’s coast guard said the finding indicates there are “ongoing activities in the area.”
The secondary buoy was spotted at the northern tip of Scarborough Shoal, the PCG said.
In September, China approved the creation of a 3,500-hectare nature reserve at the northeast rim of Scarborough, which it said is intended to preserve the ecological diversity of one of the most contested areas in the South China Sea.
Chinese maritime forces have repeatedly barred Filipino fishermen from accessing Scarborough, which lies within Manila’s 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone. The atoll is a vast fishing lagoon near major shipping lanes that China seized in 2012 after a standoff with Philippine troops.
The contested feature lies about 222 kilometers west of Luzon Island and is nearly 900 kilometers away from Hainan, the nearest major Chinese landmass.
Meanwhile, the Philippine Navy said it conducted multinational maritime drills together with US, Japanese, Canadian and French forces off Palawan province, near the South China Sea, where they performed combat readiness exercises aimed at improving interoperability.
Seven warships, including the Philippine frigate BRP Antonio Luna, US destroyer USS Spruance and Canadian patrol vessel HMC Max Bernays held a simulated naval engagement aimed at testing coordination, maneuver warfare and strategic decision-making, with support from a French maritime patrol aircraft.
The drills “reinforce the shared commitment of partner navies in promoting regional stability, maritime cooperation and a free and open Indo-Pacific region,” the Philippine Navy said in a statement.
The drills were part of the annual Exercise Sama-Sama — Filipino for “together” — and form part of broader multilateral exercises the Philippines conducts with allies amid lingering tensions in the South China Sea, a vital waterway for trillions of dollars in annual seaborne trade.
