MANILA: The Philippines will continue to deploy vessels to Sabina Shoal in the South China Sea, its coast guard said on Monday, after the withdrawal of a Philippine ship from the contested area prompted fresh concerns of Chinese land reclamation.
In April, the Philippine Coast Guard deployed one of its largest ships, Teresa Magbanua, to Sabina Shoal to monitor what Manila suspects to be China’s small-scale land reclamation activities in the area.
The ship returned to port in Palawan on Sunday, after months of pressure from Beijing, which claimed that the vessel was “illegally stranded” at the atoll that it asserts as part of its broader claim to nearly the entire South China Sea.
PCG spokesperson Jay Tarriela said the ship’s return was unrelated to China’s demands, citing bad weather, depleted supplies and the need to evacuate personnel requiring medical care for the withdrawal.
“We have not lost anything. We can still patrol and maintain our presence in Escoda Shoal,” Tarriela told a press conference on Monday.
“It’s not a defeat … It’s (neither) the coast guard abandoning our post in Escoda Shoal; we are just repositioning our own vessels.”
Sabina Shoal, which China refers to as Xianbin Reef and the Philippines as the Escoda Shoal, is a resource-rich atoll within Manila’s exclusive economic zone and close to the Philippine mainland.
For months, confrontations between Chinese and Philippine vessels have taken place at this location.
One of the more recent collisions damaged the Teresa Magbanua and another one of Manila’s vessels, while other incidents have involved China’s coast guard bombarding Philippine boats with powerful cannons and its crew members flashing high-powered lasers at Filipino troops.
The Philippines “did not surrender anything” by pulling out Teresa Magbanua, Tarriela said.
“We did not surrender … It’s also wrong to say that if we leave the vicinity, they will already reclaim it. Again, the reclamation would take four years. If we leave for one, two or three days, even one week, will they be able to build a runway there?”
Don McLain Gill, a geopolitical analyst and international studies lecturer at De La Salle University in Manila, said the ship’s withdrawal is part of “a continuing process of ensuring” that the Philippine presence in Sabina Shoal will remain intact.
“The Philippines is doing what it can based on its limited capacity to ensure the full operationalization of its sovereignty and sovereign rights,” Gill told Arab News.
The PCG had “prevailed” despite the Chinese coast guard’s efforts to “push the Philippines out as fast as possible,” he said.
“I believe that the Philippines would also be sending an alternate ship to ensure that our presence is continued there,” Gill said.
“But more importantly, Manila needs to supplement the efforts of physical presence there with other forms of activities, such as joint maritime drills along the area to make sure that it is free and open and rules-based.”
