MANILA - The Philippine Coast Guard on Wednesday urged the country's fishermen to keep operating at the disputed Scarborough Shoal and other sites in the South China Sea, pledging to step up patrols there despite an imposing Chinese presence.

Philippine vessels were unable to maintain a constant presence but were committed to protecting the rights of fishermen inside the country’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), said the coast guard’s spokesman, Commodore Jay Tarriela.

“We’re going to increase patrols in Bajo de Masinloc and other areas where Filipino fishermen are,” he told DZRH radio, referring to the shoal, one of Asia’s most contested maritime features, by its Philippine name.

On Monday, the coast guard cut a 300m floating barrier installed by China that blocked access to the Scarborough Shoal, a bold response in an area Beijing has controlled for more than a decade with coast guard ships and a fleet of large fishing vessels.

China’s Foreign Ministry had earlier advised the Philippines to avoid provocations and not cause trouble, but on Wednesday, its spokesman Wang Wenbin took a more critical view.

“I would also like to reiterate once again: Huangyan Island is China’s inherent territory,” he told a regular briefing. “The so-called operation of the Philippine side is a purely self-indulgent farce.”

Strategic location

Defence Secretary Gilbert Teodoro said the Philippines’ cutting of the cordon was not a provocation.

“We are reacting to their action,” he said during a Senate hearing on Wednesday. “They moved first, they blocked (our fishermen).”

The rocky, midsea outcrop is the site of numerous diplomatic rows. Both countries claim sovereignty over the shoal, a prime fishing spot about 200km off the Philippines, and 850km from mainland China and its southern island of Hainan.

Close to shipping lanes that transport an estimated US$3.4 trillion (S$4.66 trillion) of annual commerce, control of the shoal is strategic for Beijing, which claims sovereignty over most of the South China Sea.

However, those claims complicate fisheries and offshore oil and gas activities by its South-east Asian neighbours.

Commodore Tarriela said the Philippine fisheries bureau had successfully anchored a vessel just 300m from the Scarborough Shoal’s lagoon, its closest point to the atoll since China seized it in 2012.

It is unclear whether China’s use of a barrier represents a change to a status quo that has existed since 2017, in which Beijing’s coast guard allowed Filipinos to operate there, albeit on a far smaller scale than China.

It comes amid soured relations, with the Philippines being increasingly assertive over the conduct of China’s coast guard in its EEZ as it strengthens military ties with its ally, the United States, by expanding access to its bases.

“The Scarborough Shoal is closer to the Philippines,” said fisherman Pepito Fabros, who had come ashore in the province of Zambales in between trips to sea.

“Why are they stopping us from entering?” REUTERS