BRP Sierra Madre, the 100-metre amphibious vessel built for the US in 1944 and acquired by the Philippine Navy in 1976, grounded at Second Thomas Shoal in the Spratly Islands.
MANILA: The army will not send additional ships to the Ayungin Shoal but a resupply mission to the Filipino contingent in the area will go on as scheduled, a top official said yesterday.
The decision follows the spotting of at least three Chinese ships and 10 fishing boats within the vicinity of the shoal despite the diplomatic protest filed by Manila against Beijing’s intrusion into the area.
Defence Secretary Voltaire Gazmin said the vessels were spotted by security forces that conducted surveillance operations at about 5am.
“We saw a frigate. We saw CMS (Chinese maritime surveillance) maritime ships. We have pictures and we have sent them to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA),” Gazmin said.
“Based on (the photos) that I saw, there were two CMS and one frigate,” he added.
Gazmin added that about 10 fishing boats or dinghies were also seen in the area, which is within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.
He said the deployment of a Chinese military frigate to the area is “unusual.”
“As far as we’re concerned, it (Ayungin) is not a disputed (area). It’s ours,” the defence chief said.
“We will be using an unarmed Navy ship for our resupply and replenishment missions to our forces there,” he said.
The Filipino contingent in the shoal are in BRP Sierra Madre, a landing ship tank which ran aground off the Shoal several years back.
Ayungin is part of the Kalayaan Island Group off Palawan and one of the areas occupied by the Philippines in the West Philippine Sea, the subject of a territorial row.
Last week, a Chinese ship harassed a utility boat of Kalayaan Island town with 147 civilians that included the group of town mayor Eugenio Bito-onon.
Bito-onon claimed that the Chinese vessel started chasing the Queen Seagull utility boat while they were passing by the Ayungin Shoal.
The mayor said the Chinese vessel, which came from the eastern side of the shoal, used its powerful floodlights and sailed toward their boat several times. The Chinese warship reportedly came as close as 50 meters to their boat.
THE PHILIPPINE STAR
