2 Chinese fishing vessels seen in Aurora waters
Two Chinese fishing boats were spotted “in the east coast” of the Philippines, even as Chinese ships continued to swarm parts of the West Philippine Sea, the Philippine Navy said on Tuesday.
“We have monitored them. Not only them but other maritime traffic within our exclusive economic zone and we are coordinating with the appropriate government agency on how to address this,” Rear Adm. Roy Trinidad, Philippine Navy spokesperson for the West Philippine Sea, said at a press briefing.
“Based on the report given to us last night (Monday), we have monitored the presence in the east coast of the country,” Trinidad said.
US maritime expert Ray Powell said on X (formerly Twitter) on Tuesday that two Chinese fishing boats were monitored off the coast of Casiguran town in Aurora province.
Powell, director of SeaLight, a program of Stanford University’s Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation, which tracks Chinese activities in the West Philippine Sea, said Chinese fishing boats Lu Rong Yu 51794 and Lu Yan Yuan Yu 017 “are currently operating” less than 37 kilometers from San Ildefonso Peninsula in Casiguran.
Trinidad said, however, their presence was “not alarming” because these were not militia vessels.
“It is not only the Chinese fishing boats that we monitor. There are other fishing boats from other countries all over our EEZ (exclusive economic zone), including Asean countries and the Pacific Island states,” he said.
Earlier reports
“We have to check on the track. But these are just part of the normal reports we get. Unless it will raise a concern on our side, then we give it more attention. But for normal fishing boats, we don’t give it special attention unless necessary,” he added.
In March this year, two Chinese were spotted “loitering” near Philippine Rise or Benham Rise
The National Security Council also reported last year the presence of Chinese vessels in the eastern side of the Philippine Sea.
President Marcos earlier said the reported presence of Chinese research vessels at Philippine Rise was “clear intrusion into our Philippine maritime territory” and of “great concern.”
‘Spying devices’
In April, the military also monitored the “unauthorized presence of a Chinese ship identified as Shen Kuo in the waters off Viga, Catanduanes province.
On Monday, Powell also reported a China Coast Guard vessel conducting an “intrusive patrol” within 70 kilometers of El Nido, Palawan, while the Philippine Coast Guard was “preoccupied [with recovery efforts after] the devastation from the deadly Severe Tropical Storm ‘Kristine.’”
Meanwhile, China’s Ministry of State Security claimed it had retrieved spying devices both on the ocean surface and in the depths of the sea, including underwater “lighthouses” that could guide the transit of foreign submarines.
In an article on its official WeChat account, China’s most popular social media app, the ministry said it had uncovered devices that had been hidden on the ocean floor and were sending back information that could “pre-set the field for battle.”
“National security forces have seized a variety of special technical devices used for spying on marine information and data, hidden in the vastness of the sea,” the state security ministry said, without specifying where the devices were found.
“Some act as ‘secret agents,’ drifting and floating with the waves, monitoring the situation in our territorial waters in real time. Some act as underwater ‘lighthouses,’ indicating the direction for foreign submarines that have invaded our waters.” —WITH A REPORT FROM REUTERS
