PCG reports latest water cannon attack by Chinese vessels near Scarborough Shoal

December 4, 2024 | 1:06pm

MANILA, Philippines — Chinese Coast Guard vessels made “aggressive actions” against a Philippine patrol boat during a routine maritime patrol near Scarborough Shoal (Bajo de Masinloc) early Wednesday, December 4, ramming the vessel and dousing it with water cannons twice. 

Philippine Coast Guard Spokesperson Jay Tarriela said in a statement that the Coast Guard vessel BRP Datu Pagbuaya and two other Philippine vessels faced hostilities from at least three CCG vessels and two People’s Liberation Army Navy vessels near the disputed shoal.

BRP Datu Pagbuaya was in Scarborough Shoal for a routine patrol mission by the PCG and Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) to support Filipino fishermen in the area, who are often driven away or blocked by Chinese vessels from fishing there.

Scarborough Shoal is located 124 nautical miles west of Zambales and well within the Philippines’ 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone. 

China seized control of the shoal in 2012 as part of its broader claims to nearly the entire South China Sea. It has since maintained a constant presence there. 

According to Tarriela’s account, at around 6:30 a.m., the first CCG vessel fired a water cannon at BRP Datu Pagbuaya’s navigational antennas while the boat was 16 nautical miles south of Scarborough Shoal.

The same vessel then intentionally sideswiped BRP Datu Pagbuaya’s starboard side before launching a second water cannon attack at 6:55 a.m.

Other Philippine vessels part of the BFAR-PCG patrol also faced harassment, Tarriela said. 

He said the PCG’s flagship vessel BRP Teresa Magbanua encountered blocking and shadowing maneuvers from one Chinese military vessel and a second CCG vesse. Meanwhile, another PCG vessel, BRP Cabra, was “subjected to reckless maneuvers” by a third CCG vessel at a distance of 300 yards.

The spokesperson of the Chinese Coast Guard on Monday accused the Philippine vessels of intruding into its territorial waters around Huangyan Island, the term it uses for Scarborough Shoal. 

Tarriela responded to the CCG spokesperson in an X post and doubled down on the Philippines’ position that Scarborough Shoal is not under Beijing’s jurisdiction.

“The People’s Republic of China has no jurisdiction over Bajo de Masinloc, which is classified as a rock under the 2016 Arbitral Award and Article 121 of UNCLOS. The Philippines has sovereignty over it, including its territorial sea,” Tarriela said.

He said that waters beyond Bajo de Masinloc’s 12-nautical-mile territorial sea fall within the Philippine EEZ, measured from Luzon’s baseline. “The PCG and BFAR vessels are legitimately patrolling our waters, while it is China that is encroaching upon them and militarizing the area by deploying PLA Navy vessels to shadow PCG operations,” Tarriela added.

The PCG spokesperson said that the CCG’s actions are not standard law enforcement actions and “should be interpreted as unlawful aggression by international law violators.”