The Philippines yesterday accused the China Coast Guard of attempting to block a Philippine government vessel delivering supplies to fishers, the second such alleged incident near a disputed reef in two weeks.
The BRP Datu Sanday was supplying fuel to fishers near the Scarborough Shoal — known as Huangyan Island (黃岩島) in China and Taiwan, which also lay claim to it — when it was harassed by a China Coast Guard vessel and three other Chinese ships on Thursday, the Philippine Coast Guard said.
Three of the four Chinese vessels came within 100m of Datu Sanday’s bow, it said in an incident report that also listed shadowing, vessel transponder jamming and other “dangerous maneuvers.”
Photo: AFP / Handout / Philippine Coast Guard
“Despite these maneuvers, the skipper of BRP Datu Sanday exhibited excellent seamanship skills and managed to evade the blocking attempts,” Philippine Coast Guard Commodore Jay Tarriela said.
A week earlier, the Philippine Coast Guard said the BRP Datu Tamblot had a similar encounter in the area.
Scarborough Shoal — a triangular chain of reefs and rocks — has been a flash point between the countries since China seized it from the Philippines in 2012.
Since then, Beijing has deployed patrol boats that Manila says harass Philippine vessels and prevent Filipino fishers from accessing a fish-rich lagoon there.
On social media, China’s state-run Global Times on Saturday said that the China Coast Guard had repelled the Datu Sanday “when the vessel illegally intruded into waters adjacent to China’s Huangyan Island.”
Scarborough Shoal lies 240km west of the Philippines’ main island of Luzon and nearly 900km from the nearest major Chinese land mass of Hainan.
China claims almost the entire South China Sea and has ignored an international tribunal ruling that its assertions have no legal basis.
Tense standoffs between China and the Philippines around disputed reefs last year resulted in collisions and Chinese ships blasting water cannons at Philippine boats.
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