Escorting Philippine Coast Guard vessels, the US Coast Guard carried out what it called a “joint patrol” on May 28-30 in Bajo de Masinloc (Scarborough Shoal). This US patrol “drilled” Filipinos in boarding, inspection, and seizure operations against vessels deemed “hostile” or criminals at sea; blocking, intercepting, and searching these; and maritime law enforcement.

This is blatant intervention and fuels naval conflicts and tensions. It also runs counter to the demands of Filipinos, especially fisherfolk, for peaceful and diplomatic resolution of maritime disputes between the Philippines and China. Instead of reducing the presence of armed forces around the shoal to assert the rights of small Filipino fisherfolk, it made peaceful navigation and fishing there harder, even impossible.

Bajo de Masinloc is at the center of a heated territorial dispute between China and the Philippines. In 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration declared the waters around it as traditional fishing grounds of small Filipino, Chinese, and Vietnamese fisherfolk.