Philippines Repels Chinese Vessels Near Kota Island

The CMMV 9622, identified as a mothership, deployed 24 smaller sampans that formed a suspicious perimeter around Kota Island, operating within 300 yards and spaced 50 yards apart.

A five-member Coast Guard team dispatched via rubber boat successfully compelled the Chinese vessels to withdraw from the area.

Tensions in the West Philippine Sea have again come into focus after the Philippine Coast Guard drove away a Chinese maritime militia vessel and 24 smaller boats operating close to Kota Island in the Kalayaan Island Group.

Rear Admiral Jay Tristan Tarriela noted the absence of typical fishing indicators such as nets, leading authorities to believe the operation was not for legitimate fishing.

Authorities believe the mission was designed to document Philippine personnel and activities on Kota Island, with the deployment of numerous small boats from a mothership seen as a tactic to expand territorial coverage and surveillance.

Think of it, because it also be a possibility to survey what are the activities that we're doing in Kota Island to document the personnel who are also staying on the island. They didn't lay a net. They also didn't take anyone who dropped their fishing gears. It was just intentionally designed that they would surround the entire Kota Island.

The Philippines identifies Kota (Luata) Island as part of the Kalayaan Island Group in Palawan and asserts that it generates a 12-nautical-mile territorial sea where foreign fishing requires authorization.

China, however, refers to Kota Island as Mahuan Dao and maintains that the wider Nansha Qundao, or Spratly Islands, are Chinese territory, rejecting the 2016 South China Sea Arbitral Ruling that invalidated its broad historic claims.

On September 27, China Coast Guard vessel CCG 3303 was spotted approximately 35 nautical miles northwest of Cabra Island, indicating continued Chinese presence in the region.

The BRP Teresa Magbanua monitored three People's Liberation Army Navy warships operating roughly 31 nautical miles northwest of Batanes.

The Philippines asserts that these waters fall within its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), an area where the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) grants coastal states resource jurisdiction but not full sovereignty, differentiating it from territorial waters.

The Chinese Embassy in Manila claimed jurisdiction over these waters, citing overlapping maritime claims under UNCLOS, an assertion Philippine officials view as a significant escalation compared to previous disputes in the Spratlys or Scarborough Shoal.

The Coast Guard has emphasized the strategic significance of the waters around Itbayat, as major undersea communications cables linking the Philippines with networks elsewhere in Asia pass through this broader area.

Maintaining maritime awareness in this region is deemed vital for national security, extending beyond typical concerns of fisheries or sovereignty.

Within a matter of days, Philippine authorities confronted or monitored Chinese vessels near Kota Island in the Spratlys, Cabra Island off Occidental Mindoro, and Itbayat in Batanes, indicating a broadening scope of maritime disputes.

The vessels involved included a militia mothership with 24 small boats, China Coast Guard ships, and a research vessel, with the Philippines relying on the 2016 arbitral ruling while China insists on negotiations regarding overlapping claims.

Continuous patrols, aircraft surveillance, and public disclosures document and challenge unauthorized foreign presence in Philippine waters, a strategy that recently cleared the area around Kota Island.

This approach proved effective at Kota Island, successfully pushing back a militia mothership and 24 smaller boats, and the Coast Guard intends to continue deploying both surface and air assets to document and challenge foreign vessels operating without authorization.