Navy says ‘out of normal’ presence amid Balikatan
The number of Chinese vessels monitored in the West Philippine Sea has surged amid the annual Balikatan military exercises between Manila and Washington, the Philippine Navy said on Tuesday.
Philippine Navy spokesperson for the WPS Commodore Roy Vincent Trinidad said for the past two months, the number of Chinese ships in the WPS has remainer at a fairly constant average of 60 vessels.
“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,” he said.
“This coincides with Balikatan. This upsurge is out of the normal,” Trinidad added.
He said the significant increase in the number of Chinese maritime militia vessels in the WPS were seen in Bajo de Masinloc and Pag-asa Island.
From April 16 to 22, Trinidad said 124 Chinese vessels, including three PLAN (Navy) ships and 11 Chinese Coast Guard vessels were spotted in the following WPS features — 38 at Bajo de Masinloc, 31 at Ayungin Shoal, 46 at Pag-asa Island, 3 at Parola Island, one at Lawak Island, 4 at Panata Island, and one at Patag Island.
As this developed, the spokesperson of the Chinese foreign ministry hit the Marcos administration for its repeated denial of what it called a “common understanding” between the two countries on Ayungin Shoal.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said the deal was not only reached during President Rodrigo Duterte’s time, but also during the administration of President Marcos.
“China and the Philippines reached common understandings on properly handling the situation,” Wang said on Monday.
“These common understandings were reached not only during the Philippines’ previous administration but also its current administration. This is the plain fact,” Wang added.
The surge in Chinese vessels in the WPS and Beijing’s fresh assertion of a “common understanding” came as thousands of Filipino and American troops kicked off joint military exercises in the Philippines on Monday.
The annual drills – dubbed Balikatan or “shoulder to shoulder” in Tagalog – will be concentrated in the northern and western parts of the archipelago nation, near the potential flashpoints of the South China Sea and Taiwan.
The joint drills involve a simulation of an armed recapture of an island in Palawan province, the nearest major Philippine landmass to the hotly disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea.
The same exercise will be held in the northern provinces of Cagayan and Batanes, both less than 300 kilometers (180 miles) from Taiwan.
The Philippine Coast Guard will join Balikatan for the first time following several confrontations between its vessels and the China Coast Guard, which patrols reefs off the Philippines’ coast.
In another first, the drills will go beyond the Philippines’ territorial waters, which extend about 22 kilometres from its coastline
Like last year, there will be a sinking of a vessel off the northern province of Ilocos Norte.
China claims almost the entire waterway, a key route for international trade, and also considers self-ruled Taiwan to be part of its territory.
