Philippine officials condemn presence of china’s ‘monster’ vessel

National Security Council (NSC) Assistant Director-General Jonathan Malaya and other officials accused Beijing of using the 12,000-ton ship, dubbed the “monster vessel,” to intimidate Filipino fishermen and assert control over the disputed Scarborough Shoal, known locally as Bajo de Masinloc.

During a press briefing on Tuesday, Malaya said the deployment of CCG-5901 undermines the principles of freedom of navigation and innocent passage.

“This presence is illegal, provocative, and meant to intimidate our fishermen,” he said.

“The National Maritime Council has already called for the withdrawal of this monster ship from Philippine waters,” he added.

Malaya emphasized that the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) remains steadfast in challenging the Chinese vessel’s activities, deploying its flagship BRP Teresa Magbanua and BRP Gabriela Silang to monitor the area.

Commodore Jay Tarriela, the PCG’s spokesperson for the West Philippine Sea, pointed out that CCG-5901’s movements could not be classified as innocent passage.

“If we’re going to look at the movement of China Coast Guard vessel, it is not continuous and it is not expeditious. Meaning, it has erratic movements — sometimes it goes up, goes down, turns left, turns right arbitrarily. There is no specific reason why they are doing that,” he explained.

Tarriela expressed concern that the Chinese government might be attempting to “normalize” the presence of its vessels in the area. “This time around, the behavior of the China Coast Guard is intentional and focused only at a certain distance off the coast of Zambales: either 60 to 90 nautical miles,” he added.

Bajo de Masinloc, also known as Scarborough Shoal, lies 124 nautical miles off Masinloc, Zambales, and falls within the Philippines’ 200-nautical-mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), as defined by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Despite this, China has maintained control of the lagoon since a 2012 standoff.

Last year, reports of a large pipe installation in the area raised suspicions of a possible reclamation project. While the Philippine Navy remains skeptical about reclamation activities, Rear Adm. Roy Vincent Trinidad emphasized that such actions would cross a “red line.”

“The reports that some countries are conducting reclamation activities there are not correct,” Trinidad said.

The Philippine Navy also reported the recovery of five submersible drones in different parts of the country’s waters, raising further suspicions. While the drones were ostensibly gathering bathymetric data, officials are wary of their potential military applications.

Commodore Tarriela stressed the importance of documenting the presence of the CCG-5901 to raise international awareness.

“We’re not going to allow China to normalize the illegal deployment of the China Coast Guard because that is what they have been doing. They’re going to normalize, change the status quo, and operationalize and claim that they have been doing this for the past months or years,” he said.

“For the Philippine Coast Guard, we are documenting this illegal presence of China Coast Guard and telling the world that the Philippine government is against this unlawful presence of China Coast Guard-5901,” Tarriela added.

The Philippine government has vowed to uphold its sovereignty and ensure that its fishermen can access their traditional fishing grounds without intimidation. “In so far as the objective of this presence, which is to intimidate our fishermen and to intimidate us, we can clearly state that the intimidation tactic is not successful and we remain resolute to support our Filipino fishermen,” Malaya declared.