PH, US hold first joint 2026 patrol off Scarborough; China ship spotted

MANILA, Philippines –  The country’s first joint patrol with the United States this year in Scarborough (Panatag) Shoal also saw the presence of a Chinese warship, the military said on Tuesday.

This also marked the country’s 11th bilateral maritime cooperative activity (MCA) with its sole treaty ally since 2023, when the exercises resumed under President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. after being suspended during the administration of his predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, who had pivoted to China at the time.

 Since 1951, Manila and Washington have been bound by the Mutual Defense Treaty, which calls for each other’s defense in the event of an armed attack.

The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) said the MCA’s iteration highlighted the “enduring … alliance and reaffirmed both forces’ shared commitment to strengthening maritime security, enhancing operational interoperability, and upholding a rules-based international order in the Indo-Pacific region.”

According to the AFP, the military deployed BRP Antonio Luna, an FA-50 fighter jet, an A-29 Super Tucano aircraft, and an AW109 helicopter, while the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) assigned BRP Gabriela Silang for the activity held over the weekend of Jan. 25–26.

For its part, the US Indo-Pacific Command fielded the USS John Finn and an MH-60R Seahawk helicopter.

“Participating units conducted a series of combined naval and air operations,” the AFP said in a statement, referring to activities, including replenishment at sea, stationing, replenishment-at-sea approach, surface warfare exercise, and night steaming in company.

 Chinese warship spotted

During the drills, a Jiangkai-class Type 052 warship of the People’s Liberation Army-Navy (PLA-N) was spotted entering “within the exercise box”, according to Rear Admiral Roy Vincent Trinidad, Philippine Navy spokesperson for the West Philippine Sea.

Trinidad, however, said the Chinese warship “did not conduct any aggressive or coercive action.” 

Previously, Trinidad noted that Chinese forces used to be “at a distance in the horizon” whenever an MCA took place, but Chinese forces started to come closer and even entered the exercise perimeter last year.

“We expect for 2026, the same would be the trend,” Trinidad said.

More PCG participation seen

“We expect their presence to be there, we expect integration of their interagency forces,” he also said of the PLA-N and China Coast Guard (CCG).

On the country’s side, Trinidad also said more integration between the Navy and PCG is expected, highlighted by the participation of the Gabriela Silang.

“Without announcing in advance our activities, you could expect that there will also be an integration, more integration, more joint interagency activities in the future,” he said when asked of PCG’s participation in future MCAs.

Panatag Shoal has seen tensions between the PCG and the CCG, highlighted by the Aug. 11, 2025 incident in which a CCG vessel and a People’s Liberation Army–Navy warship collided while pursuing a Philippine Navy vessel.

Beijing claims sovereignty over almost the entire South China Sea, but the 2016 Arbitral Award effectively ruled in favor of Manila’s sovereign rights while declaring the shoal a traditional fishing ground for the Philippines, China, and Vietnam.

However, China still continued to enforce what experts call an “exclusion zone enforcement” around the shoal, preventing fisherfolk access there since its effective takeover in 2012 after the standoff. /mcm /gsg