MANILA, Philippines — China Coast Guard harassed and blocked a Filipino boat from entering Escoda (Sabina) Shoal twice last month, a fisherfolk revealed.
This was revealed in a three-page handwritten sworn statement of boat captain Arnel Lepalam furnished to the media on Tuesday night.
Lepalam said FFB Hadassah attempted to enter Escoda Shoal twice—on Oct. 8 and Oct. 17, respectively, both of their attempts being blocked by CCG personnel.
READ: WPS: Should PH anchor another ship in Sabina Shoal? Experts weigh in
Lepalam said the boat FFB (Filipino fishing boat) Hadassah started to depart from a Quezon town port in Palawan last Oct. 8 (Tuesday), 1:30 p.m., en route to Escoda Shoal.
He said they started to spot CCG personnel about eight nautical miles (NM) away from Abad Santos (Bombay) Shoal, which is situated between Palawan mainland and Escoda Shoal.
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On Oct 9. (Wednesday) 4 a.m., they also saw a CCG ship with hull number 4108 upon reaching 26 NM east of Escoda Shoal.
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“China Coast Guard 4108 started to honk their horn and do a close maneuver near us,” Lepalam said in his letter.
When they reached 16 NM east of Sabina Shoal at 5:50 a.m., another CCG ship with hull number 5203 deployed a speed boat at 6:10 a.m. to apprehend them and prevent them from entering the sandbank’s vicinity waters.
“Because of this, we were scared and we changed our direction returning to Bombay Shoal,” he said.
Still, the CCG’s 5203 ship and its speed boards tailed the FFB Hadassah while en route to Abad Santos Shoal. Then a small CCG fleet started to retreat at 8 a.m. when the Filipino boat reached two NM of Abad Santos Shoal.
An hour later, they decided to go to Iroquois Reef to fish “so as not to waste our expenditure.”
They managed to fish at Iroquois Shoal for several days before trying to go to Escoda Shoal once more at Oct 17 (Thursday), 8 a.m.
On reaching 29 NM miles away from Escoda Shoal at 1:35 p.m. the same day, they were approached by a “gray ship” at a relatively close distance of 3 NM.
Then at 8 p.m. CCG’s 4103 approached them once more, honking their horns at them to prevent them from entering Escoda Shoal.
“We heard them saying ‘Filipino fishing boat, you are not allowed to enter’,” he said, prompting their return to Quezon town.
The Philippines used to have a more permanent presence in Escoda Shoal.
However, Philippine Coast Guard’s BRP Teresa Magbanua left Escoda Shoal in September after anchoring there for more than five months.
Anchored in the shoal since April 16, BRP Teresa Magbanua was the longest-deployed PCG asset in the West Philippine Sea.
BRP Teresa Magbanua arrived in Puerto Princesa port on Sept. 15, arriving with four dehydrated crew who subsisted on rice porridge and rainwater weeks prior as CCG managed to thwart the arrival of their supplies.
This move comes as Chinese state publication Global Times once claimed that BRP Teresa Magbanua is “semi-grounded” in Escoda Shoal, similar to what it said the country did with the BRP Sierra Madre, a grounded navy warship at the shoal’s adjacent Ayungin (Second Thomas) Shoal.
In 2012, Manila and Beijing also had a tense standoff over Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal, with the former withdrawing its ships from the shoal that led to the latter having an effective control of its lagoon to date.
A year later, Manila lodged an arbitration case against Beijing after this standoff which led to a historic 2016 arbitral award that effectively rejected the latter’s sweeping claims in the West Philippine Sea.
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Experts fear that the Escoda incident could be a repeat of the 2012 incident in Panatag Shoal, but PCG dismissed such misgivings, citing different geography of two features, among others.