The Philippines has protested the presence of more than 200 Chinese vessels that were sighted from January to March near a Philippine-occupied island in the disputed South China Sea, officials said.
Presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said the Department of Foreign Affairs lodged the protest after the military monitored about 275 Chinese vessels near Thitu island, which is called Pag-asa by Filipinos, in the Spratlys, the most hotly contested region in the busy waterway.
A regional military spokesman, Captain Jason Ramon, said the number of spotted Chinese boats was 217, about the same number in the last quarter. It was not immediately clear why Ramon and Panelo gave different numbers.
📷In this April 21, 2017 file photo, engineers from NAMRIA, the central mapping agency of the Philippine Government, survey the area around the Philippine-claimed Thitu Island. (AP/AAP)
The Chinese vessels have been sighted more than 600 times near Thitu so far this year, military officials said.
Asked if the Chinese flotilla’s presence was a cause for worry, Panelo said, “Anything that concerns the security of the Philippines will always be a concern.”
Panelo did not say when the Philippines protested, but a Filipino diplomat said the foreign affairs department in Manila sent a diplomatic note to the Chinese Embassy on Friday to express concern over the “swarming of Chinese boats” near Thitu. The diplomat asked not to be named because of a lack of authority to discuss the issue publicly.
China and the Philippines, along with Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei, have been disputing ownership of the strategic waters for decades.