A VESSEL of the Chinese Coast Guard (CCG) harassed a Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) ship off Zambales in the West Philippine Sea on Saturday, using a long-range acoustic device.
The device, also known as sound cannon, produces “high decibel levels that can be painful and damaging to hearing,” said Commodore Jay Tarriela, the PCG’s spokesman for the West Philippine Sea.
Long-range acoustic devices (LRADs), according to Audiology Australia, are capable of producing a level of sound up to 162 dB SPL, which is above the average auditory threshold of pain.
The latest incident came a day after a Chinese vessel harassed personnel of Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) at Sandy Cays near the Philippine-occupied Pag-asa Island. Three CCG vessels conducted “aggressive maneuvers” against two BFAR vessels, BRP Pagbuaya and BRP Datu Bangkaw.
In the same Sandy Cays incident, the Chinese also deployed four small boats that harassed two BFAR rigid-hulled inflatable boats (RHIBs) carrying BFAR personnel who were due to conduct a maritime scientific survey and sand sampling at Sandy Cays. The Chinese also sent a helicopter that hovered above the RHIBs, forcing the BFAR personnel to abort their mission.
In the Zambales incident last Saturday, the Chinese vessel CCG-3103 harassed the PCG’s BRP Cabra which has been monitoring China’s presence in the area, said Commodore Jay Tarriela, the PCG’s spokesman for the West Philippine Sea, in a statement on Saturday night.
The Chinese have been illegally conducting patrols since January 4 off the coast of Zambales, which is well inside the Philippines’ 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone.
Tarriela said CCG-3101 “appears to be escorted by CCG-5901, a “monster ship.”
“For the first time, CCG-3103 employed a long-range acoustic device (LRAD) to harass the Philippine Coast Guard vessel, attempting to deter proximity,” said Tarriela.
“The LRAD has been described by crew members (of BRP Cabra) as producing high decibel levels that can be painful and damaging to hearing,” he also said.
Tarriela said the “harassment and the intimidating presence of the Chinese monster ship” will not stop the BRP Cabra from fulfilling its mission.
“The Philippine Coast Guard continues to uphold its mandate of safeguarding the nation’s maritime jurisdiction while striving to avoid provocation and escalation,” he said.
Tarriela also said the CCG vessels have been pushed back some 90 to 95 nautical miles from Zambales, from about 60 to 70 nautical miles in the past weeks.
“This achievement is a testament to the vigilance and bravery of the men and women aboard BRP Cabra, who have shadowed the CCG at close distances while conducting hourly radio challenges to assert that the Chinese presence violates the Philippine Maritime Zones Act, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, and the 2016 Arbitral Award,” said Tarriela.
FURTHER BACK
In a radio interview, Tarriela said the PCG intends to push the CCG vessels further away from Zambales.
“That’s the commitment of the Philippine Coast Guard to the Filipino…We are still confident that our vessels will be able to outmaneuver the China Coast Guard vessels and push them away, farther from our coastline in Zambales,” said Tarriela.
Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr said Chinese aggression has forced Philippines to defend itself.
Teodoro made the remarks during an interview last Thursday with retired US Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University.
Teodoro said China is undermining the rights of the Philippines to explore and exploit resources within its exclusive economic zone, adding that Chinese are doing this not only through words but through muscle.
“So what I’m trying to say right now is for the Philippines, what China is doing makes the Philippines, compels the Philippines to defend itself, assert its rights against China,” Teodoro said.
“So they have themselves to blame. If we are choosing the side of the right… the correct path … take the right path and correct route,” he added.
Teodoro said China’s behavior in the West Philippine Sea and East China Sea has led countries to enter into alliances.
“If China didn’t do what it is doing now, not only in the West Philippine Sea, but in the Sea of Japan, or in the East Sea, for that matter, there would be no need for all of these, you know, alliance-building mechanisms,” said Teodoro.
“For a lot of what we have been doing, it’s because of their (Chinese) actions which threaten the territorial integrity and sovereignty of our country,” Teodoro also said.