‘Lingering China vessels, boat in 2019 collision from same operator’
The Chinese vessels swarming around Julian Felipe (Whitsun) Reef in the West Philippine Sea operate from the same port where the ship that rammed and sank Philippine fishing boat FB GemVer in 2019 came from, a US think tank reported.
The Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI) identified the ships based on photos and videos. The bow numbers and the first two characters were identified from a photo taken by the Philippine Coast Guard patrol on March 7.
By cross-referencing the information with vessel profiles in the commercial database Marine Traffic, AMTI identified them as the Yuemaobinyu 42881, 42882, 42883, 42885 and 42886.
“These names will sound familiar in the Philippines. In early 2019, the Yuemaobinyu 42212—so named because it operates from the same port
as these five – rammed and sank the Philippine fishing vessel F/B Gem-Ver 1 at Reed Bank,” the report said.
AMTI discovered that the vessel had a history of government contracts and suspicious automatic identification system (AIS) activity.
The suspected Chinese militia vessel rammed FB Gem-Ver at Recto Bank, causing it to sink and leaving the 22 Filipino fishermen adrift at sea for hours. They were rescued by a Vietnamese vessel.
Video recording during a patrol on March 26-27 provided a clear image of another vessel, the Yueyangxiyu 96523.
The Philippine government’s seemingly lackadaisical response to the surge in militia vessels in Julian Felipe Reef has drawn attention to the area.
The AMTI said the Chinese boats did not just start gathering in Julian Felipe Reef over the last few months as satellite imagery shows that a significant number of them have been since at least February 2020, as earlier reported by Radio Free Asia.
“The number of vessels at Whitsun has fluctuated over this period, but never entirely disappeared,” the report said.
Armed Forces chief General Cirilito Sobejana said they are still validating AMTI’s report. “For the current information, we need to validate so that our actions can be connected to what is the truth. While these things are being reported by concerned sectors outside the country, we have our own ability to validate it,” he said.
Former foreign affairs chief Albert del Rosario said President Duterte should stop using China’s “narrative of war” in defending his weak response to Chinese provocative activities in the West Philippine Sea.
He made the remarks after the President reiterated on Monday that the Philippines cannot get back parts of the West Philippine Sea already under China’s control without bloodshed.
Del Rosario said war is not an option for the Philippines to assert its rights over the West Philippine Sea.
“We respectfully urge the President to reject this Chinese narrative of war, because it is intended to scare countries to submit to China’s will of illegally occupying the South China Sea,” Del Rosario said in a statement.
In 2017, Chinese President Xi Jinping warned that the Philippines would invite war with China if Manila would insist on having Beijing comply with the 2016 ruling of an arbitral court based in The Hague invalidating China’s claim in the South China Sea and reaffirming the Philippines’ maritime entitlements.
“We do not see a war being waged by China against us. This should have put to rest the utterly inane notion that invoking the Arbitral Ruling and standing up for our rights are equivalent to waging war against China,” Del Rosario said.
In the past few days, he said the Philippines managed to pressure China into dispersing its vessels in Julian Felipe Reef, not through war.
However, he said it remains a challenge to address the presence of 240 Chinese ships spread across the West Philippine Sea, as reported by the National Task Force for the West Philippine Sea (NTF-WPS).