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The Philippines has withdrawn a coastguard ship keeping watch over a disputed reef after a months-long stand-off with China.
The Teresa Magbanua, Manila’s largest coastguard vessel, returned to port on Sunday from the Sabina Shoal after blocking and ramming by the Chinese coastguard left the crew dehydrated and malnourished and the ship damaged, Philippine officials said. Manila said it would replace the ship at Sabina.
The situation is set to test the effectiveness of the coercion measures of Beijing’s coastguard as well as China’s willingness to de-escalate tensions with its southern neighbour over the South China Sea, which Beijing claims almost in its entirety including waters over which international law gives Manila exclusive economic rights.
Sabina Shoal had become the latest flashpoint between the two after the Philippines deployed the Teresa Magbanua to the reef in April to guard against potential Chinese attempts to seize it. In July, China sent a much larger coastguard ship, which has since blocked Manila’s efforts to resupply the crew and repeatedly rammed the Philippine ship.
Observers said Manila’s move raised concerns of a repeat of Beijing’s seizure of Scarborough Shoal, a larger disputed reef further north, in 2012.
Back then, Chinese ships used the withdrawal of Philippine vessels due to rough seas to occupy the lagoon inside the ring-shaped reef and deny Philippine fishers access. Regional security officials and maritime experts still frequently cite the incident as a failure by the US to help its treaty ally and other South China Sea claimants counter China’s creeping expansionism.
A 2016 ruling in an arbitration case initiated by the Philippines found China’s extensive claims to the area unlawful. As a low-tide elevation within 200 nautical miles of the Philippine coast, Sabina Shoal is part of the sea floor over which Manila has exclusive economic rights under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.
Manila’s withdrawal follows bilateral diplomatic consultations with China on the dispute on Thursday, but a senior Philippine government official said the ship’s return to port was not part of a compromise with Beijing.
China’s coastguard, which has been calling the Philippine ship’s presence “illegal”, on Sunday reiterated its claim that it had “indisputable sovereignty” over the reef.
Due to Chinese “control measures […] the Philippines’ repeated attempts at forced resupply missions all failed”, spokesperson Liu Dejun said in a statement. He added that China’s coastguard would continue “rights protection law enforcement activities in waters under China’s jurisdiction”.
The Philippines’ National Maritime Council, a new body Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos Jr set up this year to enhance maritime security, said another ship was going to “immediately take over” at Sabina Shoal, but ship tracking data did not show any Philippine coastguard presence at the reef after the Teresa Magbanua left on Saturday.
NMC executive secretary Lucas Bersamin said in a statement: “After she has been resupplied and repaired, and her crew recharged [the Tereas Magbanua] will be in tip-top shape to resume her mission.”
Jay Tarriela, coastguard spokesperson for the West Philippine Sea — Manila’s name for the South China Sea — said the ship had been forced to return to port due to unfavourable weather conditions, depleted supplies and the need to evacuate crew members for medical care.
“This has been further complicated by the structural damage to the vessel resulting from the deliberate ramming by the China Coast Guard,” he said in a statement on X.
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