Philippine aircraft on patrol met with China flares

A Philippine aircraft conducting maritime patrol off Subi Reef was met with flares at least three times from the China-occupied feature in the West Philippine Sea.

According to Joseph Morong's report, the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources airplane was conducting a maritime patrol near what the Philippines called Zamora Reef when the incident happened on Thursday.

From afar, one could see sizeable buildings and a lengthy runway.

It was in 1988 that China started to occupy the Zamora Reef.

Not far from Zamora Reef is Panata Island, one of the nine areas in the West Philippine Sea that China has occupied.

On Panata are small buildings, solar panels, and a lighthouse.

On the southeast side of Panata is Mischief Reef, which China started to occupy in 1995 purportedly to build fishermen's shelters.

Now, Mischief hosts huge condominium-like buildings, military installations like radars, and a long runway.

There are also numerous militia vessels in the area.

"For so many occasions dineny ng gobyerno ng China na gagawin nilang military base to," said Commodore Jay Tarriela, PCG spokesman for the West Philippine Sea.

(On so many occasions, the Chinese government denied that they would turn this into a military base.)

Off the Escoda Shoal, the BRP Teresa Magbanua stands guard amid reports of China conducting reclamation.

"We don’t want to give an opportunity for China to do this kind of activities again... within our own exclusive economic zone," Tarriela said.

In a statement, China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the country took "countermeasures" against two Philippine military aircraft that flew into its airspace.

"On August 22, two Philippine military aircraft trespassed into the airspace near the Nansha Islands, including Zhubi Jiao (Subi Reef), where China is stationed," Beijing's foreign ministry told AFP in a statement.

It added that "the Chinese side took necessary countermeasures in accordance with the law, in order to protect its own sovereignty and security".

The foreign ministry did not specify what types of measures China took, describing the actions as "professional, restrained, and standardized".

"China will continue to firmly protect its own territorial sovereignty and maritime rights, and firmly oppose any infringing actions," it added.

China said that it owns almost the entire South China Sea but the Permanent Court of Arbitration has nullified its massive historical claims.

Instead, the ruling in 2016 upheld the Philippines' exclusive economic zone in the area following the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

China and the Philippines have had repeated confrontations in the waters in recent months, including around the rundown BRP Sierra Madre which the Philippines ran aground in the Ayungin Shoal.

Earlier this week, both countries confirmed that coast guard ships had collided in a pre-dawn incident near the disputed Sabina Shoal, located 140 kilometers (86 miles) west of the Philippine island of Palawan and about 1,200 kilometers from Hainan island, the closest Chinese landmass. —Sherylin Untalan/NB, GMA Integrated News with AFP