TWO Chinese ships which conducted a survey at Recto Bank or Reed Bank, about 80 miles off Palawan, are back in mainland China, Navy chief Vice Adm. Giovanni Carlo Bacordo said yesterday.
Bacordo said one of the ships, Haiyan Dizhi, left Recto Bank on August 9 while the other, Xiang Yang Hong, departed “much much earlier.”
Bacordo said Haiyan Dizhi is now in Beijian Island in Xiangzhou district in Guangdong province, while Xiang Yang Hong was in Haikou City in Hainan province as of August 13.
Bacordo said the two ships stayed at the vicinity of Recto Bank in the South China Sea for about a week to conduct survey.
Bacordo said the Navy has submitted reports to higher headquarters, which in turn relayed the reports to the Department of National Defense.
Last week, Bacordo said reports about the Chinese survey will be submitted to the DND and he would request the department to file a diplomatic protest against China for sending the two ships to Recto Bank.
In 2014, Xiang Yang Hong and another Chinese ship were sighted doing research at Recto Bank.
In 2011, two Chinese vessels harassed a Department of Energy ship conducting oil exploration in the same area. The Chinese ships told the DOE to stop its activities and leave what they said was China’s territory.
Asked what the Navy will do to prevent similar Chinese incursions at Recto Bank, Bacordo said, “We can patrol the area but then we cannot cover the area all the time. We patrol the whole West Philippine Sea regularly but we cannot cover that whole area 24/7.”
China claims most of the South China while the Philippines claims parts of it, like Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Vietnam.
The Philippines calls as the West Philippine Sea the portion of the South China Sea that it claims.
