‘Monster ship’ still in WPS as PH patrols with US, Japan, Australia

RETURN TO PH WATERS China Coast Guard vessel 5901, called “The Monster,” is seen in the waters off Zambales province in the West Philippines in this photo taken by the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) on Jan. 11. —PHOTO COURTESY OF PCG

MANILA, Philippines — China Coast Guard’s (CCG) “monster ship” is still in the West Philippine Sea while the Philippines, along with the United States, Japan, and Australia were conducting its patrols on Wednesday, an analyst said.

West Philippine Sea monitor Ray Powell told INQUIRER.net that the CCG 5901 is still at the east of Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal as of Wednesday.

READ: US, Japan, Australia to join PH in patrolling West Philippine Sea

Details are still thin from the drills, but the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) said four warships from each of the nations conducted their maneuvers in the western section of the country’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

Powell, however, pointed out that it is unlikely that the monster ship’s presence is the “immediate cause of the exercise.”

READ: PCG drives China ‘monster ship’ farther away from Zambales coast

“But [it] certainly represents the security problem that this quadrilateral is moving to counter,” Powell, a retired US Air Force colonel and program head of Stanford University’s Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation, said in a message on X (formerly Twitter).

Beijing’s “monster ship”, believed to be the largest armed coast guard cutter in the world, had been spotted inside the West Philippine Sea in recent weeks in a move seen by Manila as an intimidation tactic.

“This patrol is further evidence that a US-Japan-Australia-Philippines quadrilateral (sometimes referred to as ‘The Squad’) is continuing to take shape, and that its chief organizing imperative is China’s aggression in the West Philippine Sea,” Powell noted.

CCG 5901 is 165 meters long and 22 meters wide—about 65 meter longer than an average football field—weighing 12,000 tons.

Beijing’s actions are based on its assertion of sovereignty in almost the entire South China Sea, including most of the West Philippine Sea, or the western section of the country’s EEZ.

In 2012, Manila and Beijing had a tense standoff over Panatag Shoal, with the former withdrawing its ships from the shoal that led to the latter having an effective control of its lagoon to date.

A year later, Manila lodged an arbitration case against Beijing after this standoff which led to a historic 2016 arbitral award that effectively rejected the latter’s sweeping claims in the West Philippine Sea.