Under the protective watch of warships, Chinese fishing vessels anchored
off the Philippine-occupied Pag-asa Island in the disputed Spratly archipelago
in the West Philippine Sea operated at will yesterday, catching fish but mainly
collecting corals in large quantities.
The fishing boats were only 9
kilometres from Pag-asa, that municipal employees on the island could clearly
see them using winches and booms to haul corals from the seabed to wooden
“sampans” (junks), said Mayor Eugenio Bito-onon of Kalayaan, which governs
Pag-asa and four other islets in the Spratlys claimed by the Philippines.
“Our people, the civilian staff
of the municipality of Kalayaan, wanted to stop them yesterday,” Bito-onon
said. “I had to ask them to stand down and just monitor the developments for
now.”
The mayor said his staff observed
the Chinese fishermen rigging steel cables to large coral heads to pull them up
using winches. The rocks were then hauled into larger ships using booms.
Bito-onon, who has been in Puerto
Princesa since early this week, said he kept in touch with the Kalayaan
municipal personnel through radio.
Diplomats’ business
Philippine troops stationed on
the island were reportedly also under orders to stand down while Manila sorted
out the problem with the Chinese through diplomatic channels, Bito-onon said.
The Western Command (Wescom)
declined to issue an official status update.
“We are closely watching the
developments and will respond appropriately and constructively in due time,”
said the Wescom spokesperson, Lt. Col. Neil Estrella.
More than 20 boats
Reports from sources at the
Department of National Defence indicated that there were more than 20 Chinese
fishing boats around Pag-asa Island.
Surveillance photographs obtained
by the Inquirer showed an unusual number of fishing vessels inside the
protected lagoons of Mischief and Subi reefs, both occupied by the Chinese.
At least 30 other Chinese fishing
boats were reported to be at Subi Reef, just south of Pag-asa.
The Philippines refers to Subi
Reef as Zamora Reef. The Chinese call it Zhubi Island, and the Vietnamese call
it Su Bi Dao.
“The fishing fleet, we believe,
came from the Paracels and part of the government-sanctioned fishing expedition
backed by several frigates and armed China fisheries department vessels,” Peter
Fajardo, Kalayaan municipality’s island administrator, told the Philippine
Daily Inquirer via radio Thursday.
Fajardo said at least eight
fishing boats could be seen from the island on Thursday.
“We saw eight fishing boats with
several sampans escorted by one big vessel coloured white, anchored east of the
island, approximately [3 kilometres to 5 kilometres] into the sea,” Fajardo
said.
Bito-onon said the sampans sailed
straight to Hainan on mainland China as soon as they were loaded with corals.
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