MANILA – Philippine naval and air assets are keeping a close watch on the China Coast Guard’s “monster ship” which was detected off Manila’s exclusive economic zone in the West Philippine Sea, an official of the National Security Council (NSC) said Monday.
“We have all our assets pointed at this monster ship. At the moment, may gawin itong masama, in the sense na may gawin itong provocative action, ay ito po ay magkakaroon ng karampatang aksyon naman mula sa pamahalaan (should it do something bad, in the sense that it would do provocative actions, the government is ready with an appropriate response),” NSC Assistant Director General Jonathan Malaya said in a Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon briefing.
Malaya did not elaborate on the Philippines’ response measures.
As of this posting, Philippine Coast Guard ship BRP Cabra (MMRV-4409) and its aircraft, the Northern Luzon Command and other assets from the Area Task Force North and National Task Force West Philippine Sea (WPS) are keeping a tight watch on CCG 5901.
The BRP Cabra challenged the presence of the CCG 5901 off the coast of Capones Island in Zambales province on January 4.
“Tuloy-tuloy ang ating radio challenge at sinisuguro natin na wala itong ginagawang masama sa loob ng ating EEZ (our radio challenges are constantly ongoing and we are ensuring that this ship will not do anything bad or illegal in our EEZ),” Malaya added.
The CCG ship 5901 was dubbed as a “monster ship” due to its massive size of 12,000 gross register tons, making it one of the largest Coast Guard ships in any fleet in the world.
Malaya said the Chinese ship’s continued operation near Philippine territory is part of China’s “intimidation, coercion and aggression” tactics.
“Pinapakita nila na may ganito silang barko at tinatakot ‘yung ating mga mangingisda na mangisda sa WPS. Ngayon in response to this papa-igtingin pa natin ‘yung presensya ng ating BFAR (Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources) at ng Coast Guard para suportahan ‘yung ating mga mangingisda (They are showing that they have this type of big ship to scare our fishermen from fishing in the WPS. Now our response to this is, we will beef up the present of the BFAR and the Coast Guard to support our fishermen),” he added. (PNA)