SeaLight: Aid mission appears underway amid ‘heavy’ China ship presence

MANILA, Philippines — An aid mission for fisherfolk off Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal appears underway Thursday, which was met with a “heavy” presence of Chinese ships, according to a West Philippine Sea monitor.

The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) has yet to make a formal announcement about the mission.

However, Panatag Shoal saw the presence of fish carrier MV Mamalakaya, along with its escort, 44-meter Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) patrol ship BRP Cape San Agustin, since Wednesday, according to SeaLight — a maritime tracking initiative of the Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation at Stanford University — post on X (formerly Twitter).

Mamalakaya is the government-owned fish carrier deployed for the “Kadiwa” program, which aims to purchase the fisherfolk’s catch and offer fuel subsidies.

READ: Gov’t launches maritime ‘Kadiwa’ for WPS fishers

SeaLight director Ray Powell told Inquirer that both ships got as close as 74 kilometers (km) or 40 nautical miles (NM) on Wednesday evening but is about 166.6 km (90 NM) east of the shoal as of Thursday morning.

Powell said that both Mamalakaya and Cape San Agustin were being tailed by a China Coast Guard (CCG) ship, “but it’s not clear if they intended to try to get closer.”

PCG ship circles Panatag vicinity 

While this is underway, Powell said BRP Gabriela Silang was deployed by PCG and “circumnavigated” the vicinity of the shoal, also locally known as Bajo de Masinloc, since Wednesday. 

Throughout its circular route, Gabriela Silang had been tailed by a CCG ship, which kept about a nine to 10-kilometer distance, “keeping itself between Gabriela Silang and the shoal,” according to Powell.

Gabriela Silang also participated in the country’s joint drills with the United States off the shoal last week. 

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

Heavy presence

In total, there were at least five CCG ships and 14 Chinese maritime militia vessels in the vicinity of Panatag Shoal during the mission, according to SeaLight.

Of the 14 vessels, eight were “large” Qiong Sansha Yu militia ships which arrived there Thursday from Hainan Island port, the monitor said.

“It’s pretty heavy [presence] with the arrival of the eight militia ships from Hainan,” Powell, a retired US Air Force Colonel, said.

However, he said it’s “hard to say” the reason for the additional reinforcements from China’s professional militia ships.

“It could be a rotation or they could have anticipated this mission,” he also said.

Panatag Shoal saw intense encounters between Manila and Beijing, punctuated by the Aug. 11, 2025, incident which led to the collision of a CCG vessel and a People’s Liberation Army-Navy warship while in pursuit of a PCG ship.

Beijing claims sovereignty over almost the entire South China Sea, but the 2016 arbitral award effectively ruled in favor of Manila’s sovereign rights in the West Philippine Sea, while also declaring Panatag Shoal as a traditional fishing ground for the Philippines, China, and Vietnam.

Despite this, Beijing still continues to enforce what experts call an “exclusion zone enforcement” around the shoal, preventing fisherfolk access there since its effective takeover in 2012 after a tense standoff with Manila. /das