By Junex Doronio

MANILA — “When you’re weak, pretend that you’re strong. When you’re strong, pretend that you’re weak,” once advised Chinese legendary military genius Sun Tzu in his book “The Art of War” and this seems to be being applied when the number of Chinese vessels has increased in the West Philippines Sea amid “Balikatan” or the joint military exercise of the Philippines and United States.

On Tuesday (23 April 2024), Philippine Navy spokesperson for the WPS Commodore Roy Vincent Trinidad disclosed that there’s a big increase in the number of Chinese maritime militia vessels in the WPS particularly in Bajo de Masinloc and Pag-asa Island.

“Our monitoring for the past two months for March and April has given us a fairly constant—from a low of 33 and a high of 69, and average of 60 various vessels of China,” Trinidad said in a press conference.

From April 16 to 22, the Philippine Navy noticed 124 Chinese vessels including three PLAN ships and 11 Chinese Coast Guard vessels were spotted in the WPS.

“Only for this week that we have seen a surge of up to a total of 124. Three People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) and (China) Coast Guard having 10. This coincides with Balikatan. This upsurge is out of the normal,” Trinidad noted.

Bajo de Masinloc – 38 vessels (7 Chinese Coast Guard ships, 31 Chinese maritime militia vessels)

Ayungin Shoal – 31 (3 CCG ships, 28 CMM vessels)

Pag-asa Island – 46 (1 PLAN ship, 1 CCG ship, 44 CMM vessels)

Parola Island – 3 CMM vessels

Lawak Island – 1 PLAN ship

Panata Island – 4 CMM vessels

Patag Island – PLAN vessel

Trinidad further noted that the Chinese maritime militia vessels were anchored together.

(el Amigo/mnm)

MANILA — In what could be the latest escalation of tensions in the West Philippine Sea, at least three vessels belonging to the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) have faced continuous water cannon attacks from a China Coast Guard (CCG) ship off Scarborough Shoal on Saturday (09 Dec 2023).

The incident involves the BRP Datu Sanday (3002), BRP Datu Bankaw (3004), and BRP Datu Tamblot (3005), engaged by CCG 3302 and 3305, along with four ships from the China maritime militia.

According to security expert Ray Powell, this confrontation has persisted for the past three hours.

As of the latest update, Chinese ships are still harassing the Philippine vessels, which were on a supply mission to support Filipino fishermen in the area.

(Amado Inigo/mnm)