Lawmakers aboard a private plane bound for Pag-asa Island said China issued a radio challenge on Thursday before the plane landed.
Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri, Majority Leader Joel Villanueva, and Deputy Majority Leader JV Ejercito were on a visit to the largest island in the Kalayaan Island Group for the groundbreaking of a new barracks inside the Emilio Liwanag Naval Station and a Super Rural Health Unit in this municipality.
Zubiri, quoted by GMA News, said “verbal challenges were issued as we were landing earlier. It’s so sad that we are here in our country, within Philippine territory, and then we are told to leave because it’s a territory of China. It’s both alarming and infuriating.”
The same radio challenge was also received by a Philippine Air Force plane carrying a group of journalists who covered the senators’ visit.
Department of National Defense (DND) Secretary Gilbert Teodoro Jr., who joined the senators in their visit to the island, said it is China’s standard operating procedure to issue a verbal challenge whenever an aircraft surrounds the Pag-asa Island.
Authorities also said during the visit, a Chinese Coast Guard vessel and several Chinese militia vessels were spotted some three to four nautical miles off Pag-asa Island.
The lawmakers said they saw the Chinese vessels through a telescope installed at the naval station.
According to Naval Forces West Commander Commodore Alan Javier, there are currently 22 Chinese militia vessels, two China Coast Guard vessels, and one People’s Liberation Army vessel in the vicinity.
Javier, quoted by GMA News, said this was the “normal” number of Chinese vessels spotted by Filipino forces.
Javier said the current Philippine deployment near Pag-asa Island consists of a Navy ship and a Philippine Coast Guard vessel.
After seeing China’s vessels near the island, Zubiri, in his speech at the groundbreaking ceremony, called on the Chinese to back off from the Philippine territory.
“I want to say to them—in case they are listening—this is the territory of the Republic of the Philippines. This is not yours… Even before Magellan arrived, this was already ours. So, please leave,” Zubiri said.
The same call was echoed by his fellow senators.
