PCG deploys aircraft, BRP Teresa Magbanua to locate, challenge China Coast Guard vessel within EEZ

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The Philippine Coast Guard has deployed on Sunday an aircraft and a multi role-response vessel to locate and challenge a vessel of the China Coast Guard that was monitored to be within the Philippine Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), said the PCG in a statement.

Under the directive of Commandant Admiral Ronnie Gil L. Gavan, the PCG aircraft 2081 - a Cessna Grand Caravan - and the BRP Teresa Magbanua (MRRV-9701) were deployed on Sunday, September 27, 2026 to "locate and challenge China Coast Guard vessel CCG-3303."

The China Coast Guard vessel, the PCG said, had been monitored loitering approximately 35 nautical miles northwest of Cabra Island, Occidental Mindoro that is within the EEZ.

The aircraft PCG-2081 took off from Manila for a Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) flight over the said area around 8:40 a.m. and by 9:20 a.m. visually confirmed CCG-3303 at 36.61 nautical miles northwest of Cabra Island.

"PCG-2081 issued multiple radio challenges asserting that the vessel was operating inside the Philippine EEZ without authority. CCG-3303 did not respond to any of the challenges," the PCG said.

On Sunday afternoon, the BRP Teresa Magbanua monitored three People's Liberation Army Navy (PLA-N) warships that were identified with bow numbers 572, 536, and 551. The vessels were operating approximately 31 nautical miles northwest of the island.

"As of this afternoon, MRRV-9701 was shadowing the PLA-N vessels at distances ranging from 0.74 to 6.28 nautical miles while maintaining PCG presence and visibility in the area. This follows the sighting of a PLA-N frigate with bow number 569 approximately 22 nautical miles east-northeast of Bajo de Masinloc on 26 September," the PCG added.

Based on the PCG's assessment, the CCG-3303 and the PLA-N warships may be connected to the Chinese naval shadowing of the ADMM-Plus Experts' Working Group on Maritime Security Joint Cooperative Activity. The said activity in the West Philippine Sea was concluded this week.

"The China Coast Guard's silence in response to PCG radio challenges near Cabra Island mirrors this pattern and strongly suggests that CCG-3303 was operating in support of the PLA-N monitoring effort rather than performing any legitimate coast guard function," the PCG said.

"The PCG reiterates that the waters northwest of Cabra Island lie within the Philippine EEZ, where the Philippines exercises sovereign rights under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the 2016 Arbitral Award. The PCG will continue to deploy its air and surface assets to monitor, document, and challenge foreign vessels operating in Philippine waters without authorization," it added.

The PCG also said that the deployment is "in accordance with the guidance of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., who has consistently directed the PCG to maintain presence in strategic locations in the West Philippine Sea and has declared that the Philippines does not intend to yield and that he will not preside over any process that abandons even a square inch of Philippine territory."

"Malacañang has likewise affirmed that government agencies acting in accordance with the law to defend the country's rights and interests in the WPS have the full support of the President," it added. — BAP, GMA News