(UPDATE) THE Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) on Tuesday reported a decrease in the presence of Chinese maritime forces in the West Philippines Sea (WPS) due to the bad weather.
In a press briefing, the AFP said that as of Sept. 22, there were only nine China Coast Guard (CCG) vessels in Bajo de Masinloc (Scarborough Shoal), one People’s Liberation Army Navy warship and two CCG ships in Ayungin (Second Thomas) Shoal. The Philippine Navy has conducted seven patrol missions in Bajo de Masinloc and one in the northern islands. “For the past one week, it has been constant, but if we compare this with the average of our monthly monitoring, the presence in Bajo de Masinloc and Ayungin Shoal has decreased. And then again, this is on account of the weather, Typhoon Nando and the one previous to Nando,” RAdm. Roy Vincent Trinidad, AFP spokesman for the WPS, said.
