Navy: 8 ‘escorts’ of Chinese carrier Shandong also seen off North Luzon

A helicopter takes off from China’s Shandong aircraft carrier in this file photo. Philippine Navy has reported seeing Chinese vessels including Shandong off the coast of Northern Luzon. Joint Staff Office of the Defense Ministry of Japan/handout via Reuters

MANILA, Philippines — After confirming the presence of Chinese aircraft carrier Shandong (CV 17) and a surveillance ship, the Philippine Navy disclosed that it has monitored six more warships and two support vessels off Northern Luzon.

Navy spokesperson for the WPS, Rear Admiral Roy Vincent Trinidad said the nine ships were first monitored off Burgos in Ilocos Norte and were last spotted off Cagayan as of Wednesday.

“This was one of the larger or unusual formations that we have monitored, considering that we have the aircraft carrier, six warships, destroyers, frigates escorting her, and two support vessels. They were monitored first around 300 nautical miles northwest of Burgos, Ilocos Norte,” Trinidad said in an ambush interview on Thursday.

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“And we kept on monitoring them until they were almost in the bounds of our EEZ on the western part of Cagayan as of yesterday evening,” he added.

Surveillance ship

Earlier Wednesday, Navy spokesperson Capt. John Percie Alcos confirmed the presence of the Chinese aircraft carrier and Type 815A Chinese electronic surveillance ship (AGI-797).

According to Trinidad, the electronic surveillance ship can be classified as a support vessel.

The presence of the aircraft carrier near the country was first reported by the United States Naval Institute (USNI).

The USNI report said the ship was dispatched for the second time this month.

Asked if the presence of Chinese vessels may have something to do with this year’s Balikatan exercise, Trinidad said: “We don’t make correlation and meaning, what we do is monitor and challenge, and we respond as necessary.”

Beijing’s continued aggression was based on its assertion of sovereignty over almost the entire South China Sea, including most of the West Philippine Sea. The economic and military giant continues to reject the 2016 arbitral ruling that effectively dismissed its claims and ruled in favor of Manila.