The Philippine Coast Guard said Monday it had challenged a Chinese warship that entered the country’s territorial waters in the South China Sea last week but eventually sailed away. The BRP Cabra was patrolling near Marie Louis Bank – about 147 nautical miles (87 km) off the coast of El Nido town in Palawan province – when it spotted the Chinese ship on July 13, the Coast Guard said. The incident occurred a day after the fifth anniversary of a landmark international arbitral ruling that affirmed Manila’s rights to its territories in the South China Sea and declared Beijing’s claims over most of the contested waterway as baseless.
The “navy warship had a flag of the People’s Republic of China and was marked by Chinese characters,” Coast Guard spokesman Commodore Armand Balilo said in a statement. “BRP Cabra calmly raised a radio challenge while monitoring the movement of the said ship using radar,” Balilo said. “The PCG vessel moved closer to see more clearly the activity of the Chinese Navy warship in our waters,” he said, using an acronym for the Philippine Coast Guard.
The Chinese warship, bow number 189, maintained silence, forcing the Philippine Coast Guard ship to use a Long-Range Acoustic Device to broadcast audible notifications and warnings.
