By Dean Aubrey Caratiquet
During the third joint operation of the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG), Philippine Navy, and Philippine Marine Corps, five foreign fishing vessels were driven away from the waters of Kota Island late Sunday.
Leading the charge was Coast Guard Station Kota, which used rubber boats to intercept the vessels after being spotted at 2:15 p.m. preparing to conduct illegal fishing activities about 200 meters from the island’s shoreline.
After not responding to radio challenges, the Joint Team pursued these vessels and ordered them to leave the area immediately, with the operation concluding at 4:00 p.m. without any untoward incident.
Yesterday’s intrusion closely followed an earlier operation where Chinese Maritime Militia Vessel 9622 and 22 sampans were also repelled on October 9.
PCG Spokesperson for the West Philippine Sea Rear Admiral Jay Tarriela said in a statement, “Under international law, the Philippines exercises full sovereignty over its territorial sea, where no foreign vessel may fish without authorization.”
Kota Island is among the several islands and features enclosed under the Philippines’ territorial rights over these hotly contested waters, and is likewise protected by the Philippine Fisheries Code and Philippine Maritime Zones Act.
Another illegal MSR to intercept
Not long after Chinese research vessel Jia Hai Ke 7 was driven away by the PCG off the waters of Batanes, the agency detected the unwelcome presence of another similar vessel in a recent maritime domain awareness flight.
The ship in question was Tan Suo Yi Hao, a research and survey mothership for China’s deep-sea manned submersibles, and is equipped with deep-sea winches, sounding systems, and sediment collection devices for seabed investigation.
This 5,073-ton vessel, last located 5.63 nautical miles west-northwest of Hubo Reef and 116.72 nautical miles northwest of Rizal, Palawan, was also found to be accompanied by two China Coast Guard vessels and two People’s Liberation Army Navy vessels in the surrounding waters.
These activities prompted the PCG to deploy aircraft and vessels to interfere with the illegal marine scientific research of Tan Suo Yi Hao and intercept other accompanying ships, with the goal of repelling them from the WPS.
PCG Commandant Admiral Ronnie Gil Gavan expounded, “These are not isolated incidents. China is orchestrating the use of fishing vessels and marine scientific research vessels in multiple areas of our maritime domain to thinly spread our operational capabilities, strain our logistics and sustainment, and pressure the Philippines toward acquiescence to a normalized, illegal, and expansive claim.”
China’s unauthorized activities violate Articles 56, 77, and 246 of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the 2016 Arbitral Award, which both honor the country’s sovereign rights and jurisdiction over its EEZ and continental shelf, and likewise forbid any marine scientific research without consent from the Philippine government. (with report from Patrick de Jesus | PTV News)
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