AFP vows more Navy assets in Scarborough Shoal after new China incident

Scarborough Shoal. INQUIRER FILES

MANILA, Philippines — The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) vowed to deploy more Navy assets in Scarborough Shoal following the harassment the Filipino fishermen experienced from China Coast Guard (CCG) personnel.

AFP spokesperson Col. Francel Margareth Padilla made the remark on Tuesday after fisher Jack Tabat said they were forced by CCG personnel to throw the shells back to the sea they gathered off the low-tide elevation before being driven away.

“For the Philippine Navy since the internal security [threat] has dwindled, then we can allocate more resources for our external defense. So we’ll have more assets of our Navy circling around the area,” Padilla said over CNN Philippines, partly in Filipino.

Tabat took the video of the incident which made rounds on social media over the weekend.

No Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) and Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic personnel were present in the sand bank when the incident occurred.

Commodore Jay Tarriela, PCG spokesperson for WPS, on Monday vowed to increase their presence and coordination with BFAR to prevent the incident from occurring again. Padilla, for AFP’s part, said they will coordinate with PCG to support their operations.

READ: PCG to Filipino fishers: Don’t be discouraged by China’s harassment

“We take this report seriously, and we are continuously coordinating with the Philippine Coast Guard on how we can support them in their operations. So this will be based on the National Task Force for the West Philippine Sea guidelines and we will, we need to do our best to prevent this incident from happening again in the future,” Padilla said.

“We will ensure that the Filipinos can freely enjoy our aquatic resources especially in this traditional fishing ground. We are hoping that the China Coast Guard will respect this,” she added.

READ: 2023: A lookback at rising tension in West PH Sea

Scarborough Shoal is a traditional fishing ground that should be shared with neighboring countries such as China and Vietnam, according to a 2016 arbitral tribunal ruling.

Beijing, which claims almost the entire South China Sea, rejected the international tribunal’s ruling, as its vessels harass Filipino fishermen trying to fish there.