A chinese warship was spotted in the vicinity of the Philippine-occupied Pag-asa Island last Tuesday while other Chinese vessels kept crowding around Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal and other parts of the West Philippine Sea (WPS), according to the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).
Col Francel Margareth Padilla, the AFP spokesperson, told a press briefing last Wednesday that as of March 19, six China Coast Guard (CCG) vessels and eight Chinese maritime militia ships remained in the waters of Panatag, also known as Bajo de Masinloc.
The shoal lies within Manila's 370-kilometre exclusive economic zone (EEZ), some 220 km west of Zambales province.
China took control of the resource-rich shoal in 2012 after a standoff with the Philippine Navy. But in 2016, a Hague-based arbitral tribunal declared that the shoal was a traditional fishing ground shared by Filipinos, Vietnamese and Chinese.
SeaNews Turkey
Col Francel Margareth Padilla, the AFP spokesperson, told a press briefing last Wednesday that as of March 19, six China Coast Guard (CCG) vessels and eight Chinese maritime militia ships remained in the waters of Panatag, also known as Bajo de Masinloc.
The shoal lies within Manila's 370-kilometre exclusive economic zone (EEZ), some 220 km west of Zambales province.
China took control of the resource-rich shoal in 2012 after a standoff with the Philippine Navy. But in 2016, a Hague-based arbitral tribunal declared that the shoal was a traditional fishing ground shared by Filipinos, Vietnamese and Chinese.
SeaNews Turkey