US to help examine drone found off Masbate

FOUND DRONE. Police Brig. Gen. Andre Dizon, Bicol police chief, inspects the underwater drone recovered off the waters of San Pascual town in Masbate on New Year’s Day before it was turned over to the Naval Forces Southern Luzon for proper disposition. —Photo courtesy Bicol police

MANILA, Philippines — The United States is helping the Philippines in the forensic analysis of the underwater drone with Chinese markings that was recovered in the waters off San Pascual town in Masbate on Dec. 30.

“We have the capability in partnership with our treaty ally. We only have a treaty ally,” Rear Adm. Roy Vincent Trinidad, Philippine Navy spokesperson for the West Philippine Sea, told the Inquirer.

He was referring to a military information-sharing pact that the Philippines and the United States signed in November.

READ: Tolentino wants Senate probe into suspected Chinese drone near Masbate

Trinidad also disclosed that four similar drones were recovered last year in various parts of the country.

Two of these four drones were found on the island municipality of Calayan off Cagayan province. Another was discovered in Pasuquin town, Ilocos Norte, while the last one was recovered in Initao town, Misamis Oriental.

‘Hard scientific evidence’

The Navy spokesperson has yet to confirm if the drone found in Masbate was launched or operated by China, as indicated by its Chinese marking of HY-119.

“But again, these do not amount to anything. We need hard scientific evidence to say where this came from and what the other parameters surrounding its presence are,” Trinidad said.

He earlier described that drone as bright yellow, three to five meters in length, 24 centimeters in diameter, and weighing 94 kilograms.

According to him, the drone—which measures “2.5 to 3.5 meters in length”—is used for bathymetric surveys, or the data gathering on the depth, temperature, salinity, and other features of a body of water.

The device also has “military applications,” Trinidad said, adding that it is a “deploy and forget” type of drone, which nevertheless is “difficult to detect” when underwater but becomes visible on the surface.

“They just transmit information to [a] mother ship,” he said.

The Senate is scheduled on Wednesday to conduct an inquiry on that recovered drone.

‘Monster’ told to leave

Meanwhile, the Philippines on Tuesday called on China to immediately withdraw its so-called “monster” ship from Philippine waters.

“[W]e have made a clear request and demand with the Chinese government to withdraw their ship. So let’s see what their response will be. We’ll take it from there,” Jonathan Malaya, assistant director general and spokesperson of the National Task Force for the West Philippine Sea, said at a press briefing on Tuesday together with other security officials.

On Monday, the National Maritime Council said the Department of Foreign Affairs had filed a diplomatic protest against Beijing over the presence of China Coast Guard (CCG) vessel 5901, the 165-meter (541-foot) ship that Manila refers to as “The Monster” because of its size.

CCG 5901 was first reported to be in the area of Scarborough Shoal on Jan. 4, although it may have been there much earlier. Last week, it was spotted 100 kilometers from the coast of Zambales province, but as of Tuesday, it was located a further 143 km away.

Still, Malaya said he regarded the vessel as “very near our coastline, [which] is unacceptable and therefore [the ship] should be withdrawn immediately by the Chinese government.”

He added that the presence of the monster ship was “a clear attempt to intimidate our fishermen and deprive them of their legitimate livelihood.”

“There is nothing regular in the action of Chinese vessels in these areas,” he said. “It is in short an intimidation tactic used by the People’s Republic of China to break the spirits of our fisherfolk and discourage them from fishing in the West Philippine Sea, their traditional fishing ground,” Malaya stressed.