Chinese harassment scuttles PH scientific survey

(UPDATE) THE Philippines said Saturday it had suspended a scientific survey in the contested South China Sea (SCS) due to "dangerous" harassment by Chinese navy and coast guard vessels and aircraft. Commo. Jay Tarriela, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) spokesman for the West Philippine Sea, said that while en route to Sandy Cays, the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) patrol vessels BRP Datu Pagbuaya and BRP Datu Bankaw encountered dangerous maneuvers by three China Coast Guard vessels, identified as CCG 4106, 5103, and 4202. Tarriela said these vessels displayed a blatant disregard for the Convention on the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea. However, he said the skilled navigation of the BFAR crew averted any accidents during these confrontations. In addition to the aggressive actions of the CCG ships, four small boats were deployed to harass the two BFAR rigid-hull inflatable boats (RHIBs) transporting personnel to Sandy Cays. Tarriela said the situation escalated further when a People's Liberation Army-Navy (PLAN) helicopter, identified by tail number 24, hovered dangerously low over the BFAR RHIBs. He said the downdraft from the helicopter's rotors created hazardous conditions, further endangering the safety of the personnel on board. Faced with the continuous harassment and mounting safety risks, the BFAR and PCG were forced to abort their scientific mission, Tarriela said. He said the planned collection of sand samples and the marine survey were left incomplete. Philippine officials said the actions of the Chinese forces contravened not only maritime safety regulations but also the spirit of international cooperation in scientific research. "Such acts of intimidation are unwarranted and unacceptable," they added. China claims nearly all of the disputed waterway, brushing off rival claims from other countries — including the Philippines — and an international arbitration tribunal ruling that its SCS claims have no legal basis. In recent months, China has deployed navy and coast guard vessels in a bid to bar the Philippines from strategically important reefs and islands in the South China Sea. Three Chinese coast guard vessels and four smaller boats made "aggressive maneuvers" toward two BFAR ships and their inflatable boats on Friday near Thitu (Pag-asa) Island, a Philippine Coast Guard statement said. The Filipino vessels were transporting scientists intending to conduct a "marine scientific survey and sand sampling" at a sandbar off Thitu, the largest Philippine-occupied island in the disputed Spratlys chain, the Coast Guard said. Thitu lies about 430 kilometers from Palawan and more than 900 kilometers from China's nearest major landmass of Hainan Island. The Philippine Coast Guard said a Chinese navy helicopter "hovered at an unsafe altitude" above the BFAR's inflatable boats on Friday, "creating hazardous conditions due to the propeller wash." "As a result of this continuous harassment and the disregard for safety exhibited by the Chinese maritime forces," the Philippine Coast Guard said it and the fisheries agency "regrettably suspended their survey operations and were unable to collect sand samples" from unoccupied sandbars off Thitu. Despite the "dangerous confrontations," no accidents occurred, the Coast Guard added. The Chinese foreign affairs ministry and Beijing's embassy in Manila did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Also on Friday, the same day as the incident near Thitu, Philippine forces resupplied and rotated without incident troops manning a derelict navy vessel grounded on the Second Thomas Shoal in the Spratlys, the Department of Foreign Affairs said. Manila had deliberately grounded the vessel on the reef in 1999 to assert its claim over the area. The latest mission marks the fifth successful resupply to the troops stationed at the marooned BRP Sierra Madre under the ambit of the Philippine-China understanding on rotation and reprovisioning in Ayungin Shoal, Foreign Affairs spokesman Ma. Teresita Daza said. "This demonstrates that effective diplomacy plays a leading role in West Philippine Sea issues and creates pathways to innovative approaches that help manage the situation without compromising the Philippine national interest," she said. The Philippine government raised the alarm this month over Chinese coast guard ships patrolling closer to the main Filipino island of Luzon, calling it an "intimidation tactic" by Beijing to discourage Filipino fishing. China rejected the allegation, with a foreign ministry spokesman saying the patrols were "in accordance with the law."