ONE of China’s two largest fisheries research vessels was monitored in Philippine waters off Palawan on Sunday, passing through the Sulu Sea, the military said yesterday.
The vessel, CRV Lan Hai 101, was detected in the eastern waters of Palawan by the littoral monitoring station (LMS) Melville, said Rear Adm. Roy Vincent Trinidad, Navy spokesman for the West Philippine Sea.
Trinidad said LMS Melville “promptly issued a challenge regarding its (Chinese vessel’s) presence in the Philippine waters.”
This is not the first time a research vessel from China was monitored in Philippine waters, including in the West Philippine Sea in the South China Sea.
The presence of the research vessel was first reported yesterday by American maritime expert Ray Powell on X (formerly Twitter).
“The Lan Hai 101, one of China’s two largest fisheries research ships, is now transiting the Philippines’ archipelagic waters. It appears to be en route to the Philippine Sea,” Powell said in a tweet at around 10 a.m. Five hours later, Powell said, the vessel has turned northward.
“It has joined the shipping lane transiting the Philippines’ archipelagic waters coming up from the Celebes Sea. Why it needed to come this way isn’t obvious — staying west of Palawan would have been a more direct route north,” said Powell.
China’s other largest fisheries research ship, Lan Hai 201, “continues to survey the Arabia Sea,” said Powell.
Trinidad said the crew members of CRV Lan Hai 101, in response to the challenge of LMS Melville, “communicated that their rerouting through the eastern waters of Palawan was necessitated by adverse sea conditions on the western side.”
“They assured that the vessel would continue its transit while adhering to the rights of innocent passage through the Philippine archipelagic sea lanes, opting to exit near Coron, Palawan,” he added.
Trinidad said the AFP Western Command, to ensure the navigational safety and sovereignty of the region, deployed Navy ship BRP Andres Bonifacio to escort the Chinese vessel. Also deployed to escort CRV Lan Hai 101 was the Philippine Coast Guard’s BRP Melchora Aquino.
As of 5:50 p.m. yesterday, CRV Lan Hai 101 was some 19 nautical miles off Tinituan Island in Cuyo, Palawan.
Trinidad reiterated that the military “continues to uphold the sovereignty and security of the Philippine waters.”
China has become aggressive in its claims in the South China Sea in the past years and has harassed Philippine government vessels and aircraft and even civilian fishing boats in the area.
Last month, a Chinese Coast Guard vessel used a sound cannon in harassing a PCG vessel conducting patrol in the Zambales side of the West Philippine Sea.
