36 PCG officers recognized for services in West Philippine Sea

The Philippine Coast Guard honored 36 personnel of the patrol vessel BRP Malabrigo on Friday for their defense of the country's sovereign rights in the Bajo de Masinloc (Scarborough Shoal) in the West Philippine Sea.

The awardees received the Coast Guard bronze cross medal and ribbon in a ceremony led by PCG Admiral Ronnie Gil Gavan in Manila, according to a report by Super Radyo dzBB's Sam Nielsen on Saturday.

Tensions between the Philippines and China have heightened in recent months as both sides trade accusations over a series of incidents in the West Philippine Sea.

China claims almost the entire South China Sea. Its territorial claims overlap with those of the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Brunei.

Parts of the waters within the Philippines' exclusive economic zone have been renamed the West Philippine Sea.

In 2016, an international arbitration tribunal in the Hague said China's claims had no legal basis, a decision Beijing has rejected. — Jiselle Anne Casucian/VBL, GMA Integrated News