Philippine Coast Guard Blocks Chinese Ship CCG 3105 Off Zambales – OpEd

A Philippine vessel held its position against a China Coast Guard (CCG) ship on March 8, The Philippine Star newspaper reported quoting the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) as saying.

PCG spokesperson Commodore Jay Tarriela said that the 44-meter multi-role response vessel BRP Cabra monitored the movements of CCG 3105 on March 8, and prevented it from approaching the Zambales coastline.

Despite wave heights reaching three to five meters, the Cabra maintained its position, keeping the CCG vessel at a distance of more than 95 nautical miles off the coast, Tarriela said.

The PCG continues to challenge what it describes as the illegal presence of the CCG in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea), asserting that China’s actions violate international and domestic laws, including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the Philippines’ Maritime Zones Act, and the 2016 Arbitral Award.

Coast guard Commandant Admiral Ronnie Gil Gavan reaffirmed the agency’s commitment to protecting Philippine waters, saying the deployment of PCG vessels aims to prevent China from altering the status quo and normalizing its presence within the country’s exclusive economic zone.

“The PCG remains steadfast in upholding President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s commitment that not a square inch of Philippine territory will be surrendered to any foreign power,” Tarriela said.

According to Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency, seawoman 2nd Class Stephane Villalon’s voice reverberated on the bridge of her ship as she issued a radio challenge to a much larger Chinese Coast Guard vessel in a disputed area of the South China Sea.

The five-foot-tall radio operator is one of the Philippine Coast Guard’s 81 “Angels of the Sea,” graduates of an all-women training program aimed at defusing encounters in the critical waterway.

“China Coast Guard vessel 5303, this is Philippine Coast Guard vessel BRP Bagacay (MRRV-4410). You are advised that you are currently sailing within the Philippine Exclusive Economic Zone,” the AFP reported quoting Villalon as saying. 

Beijing claims most of the South China Sea despite an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis, and its coast guard has clashed repeatedly with that of the Philippines, sparking fears of an armed conflict.

“(The program) helps with our engagement with the China Coast Guard because we are utilizing women, who are naturally not aggressive, not confrontational,” Coast Guard Spokesman Commodore Algier Ricafrente told AFP news agency.

That framing of women’s nature drew charges of sexism when the program first launched in 2021.

But while Philippine geopolitics analyst Andrea Wong agreed over-emphasizing “female characteristics” was problematic, Wong told AFP the program was a “positive effort” capable of utilizing women’s strengths in a real way.

“The most important thing is harnessing their full potential, whether it be their language skills (or) communication skills.”

For Villalon, the radio operator, the program’s central premise needs no defending.

“A woman’s patience, composure and the ability to respond or to communicate with empathy makes us unique, makes us more fit for this role,” the 28-year-old told AFP.

While the Philippine Coast Guard has hundreds of operators, it is the Angels who are routinely dispatched for missions in tense areas of the South China Sea, Ricafrente said.

“Angels of the Sea is a testament that there are things that women can do more effectively than men, especially in our thrust of communicating with our maritime law enforcement counterparts,” the AFP reported Wongas saying.

 “They don’t feel threatened when they talk to women.”

Villalon said she felt proud to represent Filipinas in spaces typically dominated by men, especially with regional tensions rising.

“I focus on my job… (and) just deliver my speech,” Villalon said of her approach during encounters with Chinese vessels, adding she drew inspiration from her mother, a housewife who taught her to always stand her ground.

Villalon told AFP her Chinese counterpart’s tone went from aggressive to calm as she addressed him during last month’s episode near the contested Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal.

Spokesman Ricafrente said the coast guard was committed to exhausting every means of de-escalating tensions in the South China Sea.

“Nobody wants war, nobody wants conflict… the business of the coast guard is peace,” the AFP reported quoting Ricafrente as saying. 

Ricafrente said the coast guard hopes to train another batch of Angels this year to coincide with the arrival of new ships from Japan and France that will be used for patrols in the South China Sea.

Meanwhile, France’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and accompanying warships were in the Philippines recently after holding combat drills with Filipino forces in the disputed South China Sea in a show of firepower that would likely antagonize China, the Independent newspaper reported.

The Charles de Gaulle docked recently at Subic Bay, a former U.S. Naval base northwest of Manila, for a break after more than two months of deployment in the Indo-Pacific. The French carrier engaged with security allies for contingency readiness and to promote regional security, including with Filipino forces, navy ships and fighter jets. They held anti-submarine warfare drills and aerial combat training in the South China Sea, Philippine and French officials said.

Last year, the French navy deployed a frigate for the first time to participate in a joint sail with United States and Philippine counterpart forces in and near the disputed waters. It was part of the largest annual combat exercises in years by American and Filipino allied forces. The drills, known as Balikatan (Tagalog for “shoulder-to-shoulder”), involved more than 16,000 military personnel.

China strongly criticized the exercises then, saying the Philippines was “ganging up” with countries from outside Asia in an obvious reference to the U.S. and its security partners, and warned the drills could instigate confrontation and undermine regional stability.

France’s recent and ongoing military deployments to the Philippines underscore its “commitment to regional security and the shared goal of strengthening maritime cooperation in the Indo-Pacific,” Armed Forces of the Philippines spokesperson Co. Xerxes Trinidad said.

The Charles de Gaulle, the only nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in the world other than those of the U.S. Navy, led a strike group that included three destroyer warships and an oil replenishment ship in its first-ever visit to the Philippines, French officials said.

According to the Independent, France has been shoring up its military engagements with the Philippines and other Southeast Asian nations at odds with China in the disputed waters, a key global trade and security route although it says those emergency-preparedness actions were not aimed at any particular country.

In late 2023, French Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu and Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro signed an accord to boost military cooperation and joint engagements.

France and the Philippines began talks last year on a defense pact that would allow troops from each country to hold exercises in the other’s territory. French negotiators have handed a draft of the agreement to their Filipino counterparts to start the negotiations.