FS Vendemiaire, USS Harpers Ferry, and BRP Ramon Alcaraz conducts “division tactics” during the multilateral aritime exercise which kicked Thursday. Photo taken from BRP Davao Del Sur. PHOTO FROM THE ARMED FORCES OF THE PHILIPPINES
MANILA, Philippines — Unlike in other West Philippine Sea missions when China’s radio challenges are expected, the recently-concluded maritime activity of the Philippines, France, and United States there was met with silence.
Col. Michael Logico, Balikatan exercise’s executive agent, on Tuesday said that People’s Liberation Army-Navy (PLAN) warships turned off their automatic identification systems (AIS) transponders which are used to broadcast radio challenges touting their position.
Four PLAN warships were spotted throughout the multilateral maritime activity which ran from April 25 to April 29.
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“They turned off their AIS transponder,” Logico said when asked if PLAN warships conducted radio challenges against the fleet.
“It would have been better if they turned on their AIS transporter to make their presence known,” he added.
Logico, however, said that the PLAN warship’s silence during Balikatan is not unusual.
“This is a game that we are actually playing; we show up, they show up,” Logico said.
“They were not able to disturb us in any way nor [were] we intimated in any way by their presence,” he also said of the PLAN warships.
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Commodore Roy Vincent Trinidad, who is the Navy spokesperson for the West Philippine Sea, attributed China’s behavior to the presence of foreign vessels.
Beijing asserts sovereignty in the entire South China Sea — including most of the West Philippine Sea — despite the July 2016 arbitral tribunal ruling that effectively invalidated its claims based on a case filed by Manila in 2013.
“Because of the presence of foreign warships, we have seen a change, a light change in their behavior,” Trinidad said.
The naval fleet consisted of Philippine BRP Ramon Alcaraz and BRP Davao del Sur, the French frigate Vendémiaire, and the United States Ship (USS) Harpers Ferry.