PROUD COLORS The Philippine flag flies proudly on the deck of the rusting BRP Sierra Madre, which houses a Marine detachment in the disputed Ayungin Shoal where Chinese Coast Guard ships are on regular patrol. GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE
PUERTO PRINCESA CITY, Philippines—Military missions to the Ayungin Shoal do not end with the reprovisioning of and rotating the troops stationed at the marooned BRP Sierra Madre in the West Philippine Sea outcrop.
Filipino fishermen who are every bit as daring as the small government vessel that outwitted the Chinese Coast Guard in the disputed shoal last March 29 are also very much in the minds of those in charge of monitoring the claim.
“There are things that still need to be done so that it (Ayungin Shoal) could be maximized by Filipinos,” said Lt. (sg) Ferdinand Gato, the head of the resupply mission who directed the daring escape of the Philippine vessel from the massive Chinese Coast Guard ship that tried to block its path toward the Sierra Madre.
Gato is part of the logistics staff of the Naval Forces West (Navforwest), the Navy unit under the military’s Western Command, tasked to oversee the Scarborough Shoal, the Kalayaan island group and eastern Palawan.
Scarborough Shoal, off the coast of Zambales province, is another Philippine territory being claimed by China. It was the scene of a tense standoff between the country’s two navies in 2012.
In the case it filed last Sunday before the United Nations’ International Tribunal of the Laws of the Seas (Itlos) seeking international arbitration over its territorial dispute with China, the Philippines maintains that Scarborough and Ayungin are within the country’s 370-kilometer exclusive economic zone.
Exclusive economic zone
The two shoals have rich fishing grounds. They also provide shelter to vessels caught in bad weather at sea because the reefs around their lagoons provide a natural barrier against strong waves.
The Sierra Madre (LT 57), which was intentionally grounded in 1999 to mark the Philippine claim to Ayungin, is inside the lagoon.
Lighthouse needed
For the Filipino fishermen who are sometimes able to get to Ayungin could benefit from a lighthouse that could serve as guide when they fish at night, as well as some navigational markers and buoys so that their vessels could seek shelter in the lagoon when there’s a storm.
Marine Sgt. Edwin Galvan, who recently returned from a five-month tour of duty in Ayungin, said the Filipino fishermen are gutsy.
“They just ignore the Chinese Coast Guard even if the vessel would blare its horn at them,” Galvan said.
Of course, it’s a different story when a huge Chinese ship blocks their path.
Welcome visitors
The fishermen, who come from various parts of the country like Batangas or Iloilo, are welcome visitors to the Sierra Madre and its occupants.
“At least we get to see new faces and not just those of my fellow soldiers,” said Galvan, laughing.
The Marines would sit and chat with the fishermen over coffee.
Sometimes, the fishermen would go to them for first aid.
“They’d get cuts from their equipment,” Galvan said. A medical corpsman, he would tend to their wounds.
Once, a group of fishermen arrived asking for help when one of their companions sickened and died at sea.
“We couldn’t do anything but offer a huge plastic [sheet] to cover the body with so that they could properly transport the remains back to Iloilo,” Galvan said.—With Christian V. Esguerra