China Coast Guard halts Filipino resupply attempts at Escoda Shoal

MANILA, Philippines — For more than a week now, the China Coast Guard has been preventing Filipino supply vessels from reaching the Teresa Magbanua in Escoda Shoal, Philippine Coast Guard Commodore Jay Tarriela said Monday.

“Unfortunately, we’ve been attempting for almost more than a week to resupply but they have always been hampered and prevented by the China coast guard,” Tarriela said over dzBB.

Aside from PCG ships, Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources vessels were also involved in the resupply missions to Teresa Magbanua.

The 97-meter patrol vessel Teresa Magbanua has been deployed since April in Escoda Shoal, some 110 nautical miles from the coast of Palawan and well within the country’s 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

It was deployed in the area after marine science researchers from the University of the Philippines reported their discovery of crushed corals, indicating reclamation work in early stages, apparently by the Chinese.

China even protested the presence of Teresa Magbanua, “illegally anchored” in the area and sent its “monster ship” in a show of force.

Tarriela said supply runs in Escoda Shoal were mostly for Filipino fishermen, in the form of fuel subsidies, to encourage them to continue doing their trade in the area.

“We encourage them in the form of fuel subsidy, and whenever we see them in the West Philippine Sea we give them fuel and they’re also supporting the government in exercising our sovereign rights, that we have the right to extract all resources,” he said.

In a post on X, Tarriela also condemned last Sunday’s “unprofessional, aggressive and illegal actions” by the Chinese in Escoda Shoal.

“It is (China) that is trespassing in our exclusive economic zone. Escoda Shoal is located within our EEZ, while your claim to Xianbin Jao exists only in the imagination of the Chinese Communist Party,” he said.

Datu Sanday was sailing back to Bataan to undergo damage checks, he said.

For the Department of National Defense, the Philippines should strengthen its capabilities to deter armed attacks and anticipate more illegal acts by China.

Asked in a chance interview in Taguig whether the Philippines and its treaty ally the US need to agree on what can be considered as an armed attack, Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. replied: “You know, that is putting the cart before the horse. Let us deter an armed attack. That is the more important thing here, that is what I am focused on doing.”

“Everybody is too focused on armed attack. Let us make ourselves strong enough so that does not happen,” he added.

US officials have given assurances that an armed attack on Philippine armed forces, public vessels or aircraft in the Pacific, including in the South China Sea, would invoke Washington’s treaty commitments.

Teodoro said the Philippines should anticipate such moves from China, whose maritime claim that covers practically the entire South China Sea was voided by an international arbitral court in 2016.

“We expect this kind of behavior from China because this is a struggle. We have to be ready to anticipate and to get used to these kinds of acts of China which are patently – we have been saying this repeatedly – illegal but they do not care,” the defense chief said.

Armed Forces of the Philippines chief Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr. said President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s order for agencies not to give up “even a square centimeter” of Philippine territory still stands.

Brawner said the military’s operations in the West Philippine Sea form part of its obligations and are in line with international law.

“We follow the law. Other countries like China do not follow the law, they insist that the area is theirs. But the ruling in 2016 states that the area is not theirs. That is why we have to assert really our sovereignty and our sovereign rights,” the military chief said. — Alexis Romero, Sheila Crisostomo, Jose Rodel Clapano