2 Coast Guard ships arrive at Panatag

MANILA, Philippines - Two ships of the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) arrived to conduct patrols at Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal on Nov. 5.

PCG commandant Rear Admiral William Melad said the deployment of the newly acquired BRP Tubbataha and MCS 3010, a monitoring, control and surveillance vessel, is in compliance with the directive of Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade for the PCG to conduct patrol at the country’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

Panatag Shoal is located 124 nautical miles west of Zambales, which is well within the 200-nautical mile Philippine EEZ.

Melad said the Tubbataha and MCS 3010 have filed their initial report, but he was not authorized to disclose it, as he has yet to submit a report to the Task Force on the West Philippine Sea.

“But the sea condition was bad and they only sighted one Filipino fishing boat in the area,” he said.

They have identified the PCG ships that would conduct patrol at Panatag Shoal, also called Bajo de Masinloc.

Aside from Tubbataha, a multi-role response vessel, the PCG will tap BRP Davao del Norte and three of its monitoring, control and surveillance ships. BRP Pampanga has been placed on standby.

Melad said that they might be changing vessels every two or three days.

The Chinese coast guard began conducting patrols at Panatag in 2013 and prevented Filipino fishermen from getting close to the shoal.