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| Chinese Coast Guards |
The Philippine Coast Guard is to be deployed to “test the waters” at the contested Scarborough Shoal or Panatag Shoal said Secretary Arthur Tugade of the Department of Transportation last Oct 27, 2016.
Tugade said to the reporters at Malacañang that the PCG's deployment would only involve "roving inspections and testing the waters" in the disputed shoal.
Tugade also doesn't believe a clash between the two Coast Guards will happenand said "That is farthest from our mind right now ."
Meanwhile, National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon and PCG Commander Armand Balilo earlier said that the Coast Guard would only patrol Panatag Shoal at a distance to avoid tension with the Chinese Coast Guard.
Chinese ships still remain stationed in the area, but Filipino fishermen aboard small boats were able to enter the lagoon of the shoal this past week.
Last month, President Rodrigo Duterte made a four-day state visit to China where he and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to strengthen the two countries' cooperation in the field of fisheries.
Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto Yasay Jr. earlier said that there was no formal agreement between Philippines and China on the shoal.
"There is no agreement that has been arrived at with China insofar as these ships leaving or our fishermen having access to Scarborough but I would imagine as part of our quiet diplomacy trying to build mutual trust and confidence with two countries, these have been made possible," Yasay said.
China seized control of the Scarborough shoal or Panatag Shoal a U-shaped rock formation with a sprawling lagoon teeming with rich maritime resources, Back in 2012 following a maritime standoff with Philippine authorities.
Philippine officials insisted that the shoal, which is facing the South China Sea, is within the country’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) as mandated by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, an agreement signed by 163 nations.