Chinese vessel hits BFAR ship with laser six times

MANILA, Philippines — An unidentified Chinese vessel struck a Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) ship with a “high-intensity laser” in the West Philippine Sea last week.

The incident happened past 8 p.m. on Dec. 2 in the vicinity of Hasa-Hasa (Half Moon) Shoal, a feature located just about 111 kilometers (60 nautical miles) off Palawan, while the BRP Datu Tamblot was en route to Pag-asa (Thitu) Island, according to a government report.

The Chinese ship used the laser at BRP Datu Tamblot from the shoal’s east direction six times at an interval of five minutes.

READ: DFA files yet another protest over Dec. 4 harassment of BFAR ship

The crew of the accompanying BFAR ship BRP Datu Matanam Taradapit recorded the incident using a night-vision camera.

“The high-intensity laser was described to be color red, albeit appeared violet in photos, and [was] painful to the eyes,” the report said.

The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) has yet to issue a statement on the incident, which took place two days before the China Coast Guard (CCG) carried out acts of aggression in two disputed shoals.

The CCG sideswiped and blasted its water cannon at BFAR’s BRP Datu Pagbuaya near Bajo de Masinloc or Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal on Dec. 4.

In two assaults about 20 minutes apart, the Chinese vessel fired its water cannons at the Pagbuaya, targeting its navigation and communications equipment to “cause damage,” according to the PCG.

The two other PCG ships in the vicinity—the BRP Teresa Magbanua and BRP Cabra—also encountered CCG and People’s Liberation Army Navy vessels making “dangerous maneuvers” around that time.

At Escoda (Sabina) Shoal, Chinese vessels also harassed Philippine government ships almost at the same time as the Masinloc incident.

This developed as the Philippines, Japan, and the United States prepare for their first trilateral maritime dialogue in Tokyo on Tuesday.

Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Mofa) said the three nations will discuss “the situation in the region, including the South China Sea, discuss future initiatives, and exchange opinions widely to materialize cooperation in the marine field.”

The meeting will be headed by Ryo Nakamura, director general of Mofa’s Southeast Asian Affairs Division. It will be attended by Mira Rapp-Hooper, senior director for East Asia and Oceania at the US National Security Council, and Maria Theresa Lazaro, undersecretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs.

“In this meeting, we will focus on the situation in the region, including the South China Sea, discuss future initiatives, and exchange opinions widely to materialize cooperation in the marine field,” Mofa said in a statement.

The leaders of the three countries held their first standalone summit in Washington, DC, in April this year, where they agreed to reinforce trilateral security and economic cooperation in the face of an increasingly aggressive China.

The Philippines and Tokyo held a maritime dialogue in Manila last week, with diplomats, defense officials, and other government representatives exploring ways to strengthen cooperation and discussing the latest developments in their surrounding seas such as the East and South China Seas.

The Philippines, United States, and Japan also conducted a joint patrol in the West Philippine Sea last week, a few days after the confrontations between Manila and Beijing in those waters.

US responds to China’s protests

Deployed were the US Navy P-8A Poseidon from Patrol Squadron 47; the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force’s Murasame-class destroyer JS Samidare (DD 106), and the Philippine Navy’s BRP Andres Bonifacio and a C-90.

The US Indo-Pacific Command said the patrol was intended to “uphold the right to freedom of navigation and overflight, other lawful uses of the sea and international airspace, as well as respect to the maritime rights under international law.”

In the United Nations, the US mission also responded to Beijing’s notes verbales protesting Manila’s extended continental shelf claim in the West Philippine Sea by rejecting China’s “expansive maritime claims” in the South China Sea.

In a diplomatic note dated Dec. 5, the United States reiterated its position that there is “no legal basis” for China’s claim of “historic rights” in the South China Sea or its assertion of legal entitlements based on “Nanhai Zhudao,” which includes four China-designated island groups treated as a single geographic unit.

“The views expressed by [China] pertaining to its expansive maritime claims in the South China Sea are without a factual or legal basis,” the US mission pointed out.

“Such claims have been rejected as unlawful by the United States and many other countries, as reflected in communications by States that are available on the website of the United Nations Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea as well as in other diplomatic communications,” it added.

Continental shelf expansion

The United States clarified that its present communication concerned only the views expressed by China regarding its maritime claims in the South China Sea and “does not comment on the Philippines’ submission to the Commission.”

In its petition filed on June 14, the Philippines, invoking its right under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos), formally asked the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf to extend its continental shelf in the West Philippine Sea, particularly in the western Palawan region.

Unclos defines a continental shelf as the submerged extension of a coastal state’s land territory covering the seabed and subsoil beyond its territorial sea up to the edge of its 370 km (200-nautical-mile) exclusive economic zone.

Coastal states are allowed to extend the outer limits of their continental shelf to a maximum of 350 nautical miles, or 648 km, from the baselines of their territorial sea, according to the international agreement.

In two separate diplomatic notes dated June 18 and Aug. 19, China appealed to the UN body “not to consider” the Philippines’ claim, saying that it “seriously infringed” on Beijing’s sovereignty, sovereign rights, and jurisdiction in the South China Sea. —with a report from Jane Bautista

(2024/12/09-05:55)