On Wednesday ( May 15 ), Civilians on board Philippine fishing boats sailed towards a China-controlled reef off the Southeast Asian nation to distribute provisions to Filipino fishermen and assert their rights on the disputed waterway.
In the most recent maritime event between the two countries, China Coast Guard vessels fired water gun at two Spanish authorities boats in the same place two weeks prior.
About 200 individuals boarded five commercial fishing vessels that were being flown out of a northern slot in the morning, escorted by a number of small beams, waving small Spanish colors and chanting” the Philippines is theirs, China out .”
A hapless Philippine Coast Guard vessel arrived in open water a few hours later and stood watch as it distributed food and fuel to Filipino sailors and dropped a few orange buoys with the message” WPS is Ours” on them.
WPS stands for the West Philippine Sea, and it is also known as Manila’s name for the waters of the South China Sea that are located immediately east of the Philippines.
The party then stated in a statement that it would continue on its tour until the end of the second stage of its voyage in order to achieve the Panatag Shoal for another round of supply distribution to Filipino fishermen there.
More vessels were being deployed by the Philippine Coast Guard in Manila to chaperone the fleet.
There was” no Chinese reputation” where the arteries had distributed aid to fishermen, according to a spokeswoman for the convoy, who spoke to reporters via a messaging app.
The boats were” still far from the shoal,” he said, but he would n’t reveal the precise location of this stage of the voyage.
The organization had stated that it had received rumors of a “heavy reputation” of Chinese vessels close to the Scarborough Shoal.
The Scarborough Shoal has been a possible battleground since Beijing seized it from Manila in 2012, and is known as Panatag in the Philippines.
The fish-rich coast is located about 240 kilometers west of Luzon, the Philippines ‘ main beach, and nearly 900 kilometers away from Hainan, the next major Chinese land mass.