PH to boost presence in Bajo de Masinloc, says NSC’s Malaya

The Philippines will boost its presence in Bajo de Masinloc or Scarborough Shoal to assert its rights and jurisdiction over the area, National Security Council assistant director general Jonathan Malaya said on Tuesday, May 6, 2025.

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines will boost its presence in Bajo de Masinloc or Scarborough Shoal to assert its rights and jurisdiction over the area, National Security Council assistant director general Jonathan Malaya said on Tuesday.

Malaya made the pronouncement after noting that the presence of Chinese Coast Guard and Chinese Maritime Militia ships “doubled” in Bajo de Masinloc across the past year, and limited the access of Filipino fishermen to the shoal.

“On behalf of our fishermen, and the territorial integrity of the Philippines, we will continue to ramp up this presence by sending our ships regularly on maritime patrol, as well as air patrols just to fly the flag and send a very strong message that we will not be deterred in asserting our rights and jurisdiction in Bajo de Masinloc,” Malaya said in a forum.

READ: PCG spots ‘monster ship,’ more China vessels at Bajo de Masinloc

According to Malaya, the Philippines has maintained a persistent presence in the shoal just like China, with Philippine Coast Guard and Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources vessels consistently asserting Philippine sovereignty.

This, said Malaya, is due to the fact that the shoal is a “flashpoint” area and that the territorial integrity is of paramount importance and non-negotiable to the Philippine government.

Meanwhile, Malaya also expressed worry over China’s possible militarization of the shoal by constructing artificial islands.

“What keeps us awake at night, of course, is the prospect of China—since they have presence in the area—turning a shoal into an artificial island or militarizing it. That is going to be alarming,” said Malaya.

He stated that under President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s policy of not ceding any Philippine territory to China, the construction of artificial islands would be considered as crossing a “red line” for the Philippines.

“The legal status of Scarborough Shoal as part of the Philippine territory is clear, therefore, that is a red line for the Philippines,” said Malaya.

“I hope that China continues to adhere to the declaration of conduct, no new occupation of unoccupied features. And we expect China to adhere to that,” he added.

Bajo de Masinloc is located 124 nautical miles from Masinloc, Zambales. In comparison, it lies 472 nautical miles from China’s land mass.

It is part of the areas being disputed by the two countries after the latter—through its so-called 10-dash line—claimed ownership of most of the South China Sea, including the West Philippine Sea, which is well within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

China’s 10-dash claims, meanwhile, has already been effectively invalidated by a July 2016 international tribunal ruling that stemmed from a case filed by Manila in 2013.

Despite this, the Asian giant continued to deliberately ignore the ruling, consistently encroaching on the Philippines’ EEZ.