It was not the first time that a Chinese vessel used a blinding laser light to shoo away a Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) vessel in the West Philippine Sea (WPS).

Commodore Jay Tarriela, PCG adviser of the Commandant for maritime security, said a People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) vessel of China also directed a blue laser light towards a PCG tugboat in June 2022.

“This is already the second time. The first time we experienced the laser-pointing of CCG was in June last year when BRP Habagat, a Coast Guard tugboat, was helping in the conduct of a RoRe mission,” Tarriela said in a Laging Handa press briefing on Tuesday, Feb. 14.

Accordingly, the incident occurred near Panata Island (Lankiam Cay) in the Kalayaan Island Group (Spratly Islands) and PCG personnel were exposed to a blue laser light for 20 minutes.

Eight months later, a CCG vessel with bow number 5205 directed a military-grade green laser light towards BRP Malapascua (MRRV-4403) in Ayungin (Second Thomas) Shoal in WPS last Feb. 6.

“The difference is that they used blue light back then, and it was green light now. Our personnel also experienced temporary blindness and skin itchiness that time,” Tarriela said.

Whether or not the use of blinding laser is a new tactic by the CCG to prevent Philippine vessels from accessing key maritime features in the WPS, Tarriela said the PCG will still patrol the WPS to assert the country’s sovereign right in the area.

“It is important for us to underline this, the PCG did not back out from this laser-pointing incident. If in case this is repeated, the PCG will have this commitment that we will still be patrolling our waters in the West Philippine Sea regardless of this danger,” Tarriela stressed.

The PCG already presented videos and photos of the latest laser-pointing incident to the National Task Force for the West Philippine Sea (NTF-WPS) which could be the basis of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) for the possible filing of a diplomatic protest against the Chinese government.

Meanwhile, aside from laser-pointing tactic, Tarriela said they have also observed that the CCG uses a ploy where hundreds of maritime militia vessels swarm a particular feature in the WPS to deny the entry of Philippine vessels.

“They gather their maritime militia and they go by almost hundreds to swarm, even more than 150,” he stated.

To counter this, the PCG boosts the presence of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in the areas occupied by the military in the WPS.

“For the PCG, we also deploy our personnel in the territories that are previously occupied only by our Armed Forces,” Tarriela said.