MANILA, Philippines - A Chinese warship has run aground on a shoal located about 60 nautical miles off Rizal town in Palawan, an Australian newspaper reported yesterday.
The Department of National Defense (DND) confirmed that a Jianghu-class, Chinese guided-missile frigate with bow No. 560 had run aground, but no details were provided.
“We have dispatched our own assets from the Western Command (Wescom) to investigate why the ship was there. Was it involved in an accident? If they need help then we will provide assistance,” Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin said.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported that the Chinese warship ran aground the other night while patrolling contested waters in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea).
The report said the frigate pinned itself to a reef at Half Moon (Hasa Hasa) Shoal, on the southeastern edge of the Spratly Islands and remains “thoroughly stuck.”
“Salvage operations could be diplomatically challenging, given the vessel appears to have run aground within 200 kilometers of the Philippines coast, which is squarely within what Manila claims to be its exclusive economic zone,” the Sydney Morning Herald reported.
“We have an initial report (on mishap) and we are now validating it. That’s why Wescom, which has operational jurisdiction over the area, is investigating this,” Gazmin said.
The purpose of the validation and investigation, Gazmin said, is to determine why the Chinese warship was in the area.
Naval Forces West commander Commodore Rustom Peña added the naval assets are sailing to the area to provide assistance if needed.
“I can only suppose that it ran aground the other night because the incident was only reported to me yesterday morning,” Peña said.
The Chinese embassy in Manila yesterday confirmed the incident.
“According to the information we got from the Information Department of the Ministry of National Defense of China, around 7 p.m. of July 11, a frigate of Chinese Navy ran aground accidentally at Half Moon Shoal of Nansha Islands during a routine patrol mission, with no personnel injured. Currently the rescue work by the Chinese Navy is underway,” the embassy said in a statement.
The stricken Chinese navy vessel, the Sydney Morning Herald reported, has in the past been involved in aggressively discouraging Filipino fishing boats from the area.
Sources in Wescom said the warship is one of several Chinese naval gunboats that conduct regular patrols in the West Philippine Sea and had been aggressively harassing Filipino fishermen.
Another official added the maritime accident occurred several days ago without any sign that the Chinese warship is being salvaged from the area.
“It’s been there since it (warship) struck the reef several days ago,” the official said, adding that the Chinese vessel is based at the highly fortified Panganiban Reef (Mischief Reef).
Mischief Reef is only 76 nautical miles from Hasa Hasa Shoal, where the Chinese warship got stuck, the official pointed out.
While the sea lane in Hasa-Hasa is an international passage way for commercial vessels, the official said the presence of the Chinese warship in the area only bolstered China’s creeping invasion in the region, which is also being claimed by Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei.
“Hasa Hasa Shoal is only 60 nautical miles from Rizal, Palawan. They have no right to be there in the first place,” the official stressed.
For several months now, China has become very aggressive in laying its territorial claim over the entire West Philippine Sea, basing their claim on alleged historical claims.
Aside from Mischief Reef, the Chinese have installed a powerful radar atop a four-story building they constructed at Subi Reef.
Subi Reef is only 12 nautical miles from Pag-asa Island, seat of the municipal government of Kalayaan town.