PCG zeroing in on waters off Zambales due to China’s Monster ship

THE MONSTER Filipino coast guard men aboard BRP Teresa Magbanua catch a glimpse of the largest China Coast Guard ship 5901 from a porthole at Escoda (Sabina) Shoal on July 3, 2024 —Photo from the Philippine Coast Guard

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) is zeroing in on the waters off Zambales due to the presence of the China Coast Guard’s (CCG) “Monster ship” for a few months now.

Commodore Jay Tarriela, PCG spokesperson for the West Philippine Sea, made this pronouncement on Friday, noting that the CCG 5901 is staying in waters off Zambales which is near the Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal.

“Our main concern right now is [waters] off the coast of Zambales,” Tarriela said in an online briefing.

“Our intention is to prevent the China Coast Guard from getting closer to the coastline of Zambales,” he added.

Spotted in the western section of the Philippine Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) since December 2024, the CCG 5901 is believed to be the largest armed coast guard cutter in the world.

CCG 5901 is 165 meters long and 22 meters wide — about one and a half of an average football field — and weighs 12,000 tons.

The PCG has deployed its biggest ship, a 97-meter multirole response vessel (MRRV) BRP Teresa Magbanua to keep the “Monster ship” at bay.

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Tarriela said the arrival of CCG 5901 as close as 54 nautical miles last Jan. 4 gave PCG an “alarming and compelling reason” to deploy its flagship MRRV.

While relatively near the Zambales coast, the Monster ship is still outside the territorial waters of the country.

The Monster ship’s intrusive patrols are based on Beijing’s assertion of sovereignty in almost the entire South China Sea, including most of the West Philippine Sea, despite the historic 2016 arbitral award which effectively rejected its sweeping claims in the western section of Manila’s EEZ.

While the PCG is focusing on Zambales at present, Tarriela assured the public that they have deployed vessels to the northern parts of the country, in Palawan, and Kalayaan Island Group.

“We are thinly spreading our assets to cover the entire West Philippine Sea,” Tarriela said.