A fire which produced thick, black smoke aboard the grounded ship BRP Sierra Madre on Ayungin (Second Thomas) Shoal in the Spratly Islands was part of an “operational exercise” designed to train troops in case of an actual blaze, but it was not damaging to the environment, the Philippine Navy (PN) disclosed Tuesday, March 4.
Rear Adm. Roy Vincent Trinidad, PN spokesperson for West Philippine Sea (WPS), said the fire drill took place last Feb. 28, and was meant “to ensure the survivability and operational readiness” of BRP Sierra Madre.
“The smoke incidentally went beyond what they were intending to exercise. Nevertheless, this was put under control. There was no damage to the environment and all the men aboard the ship are safe. The exercise was conducted successfully,” he said.
The fire drill onboard the BRP Sierra Madre is not a new exercise, according to Trinidad. He said it is generally being practiced at least once a month.
“They usually use combustible materials, excess, usually, the ones that are easy to burn. It just so happened [that] because of the strong winds, [the fire] got big. But they were able to put everything under control,” he added.
On social media, state-run China Global Television Network (CGTN) released footage of the incident showing heavy smoke billowing from BRP Sierra Madre, which has been deliberately ran aground by the PN on Ayungin Shoal since 1999 to assert the country’s sovereignty.
The CGTN accused the BRP Sierra Madre of conducting “a series of environmentally damaging activities” which “poses a threat to the ecosystem of Ren’ai Jiao,” the name it calls Ayungin Shoal.
Trinidad denied the allegation, saying it’s typical for China to peddle fake information.
“It’s part of the deceptive messaging of the Chinese Communist Party,” he said.
“We are being attacked in the information domain,” the admiral noted. “The battlefield is the cognitive domain or the minds of the Filipino people.”
“While this is not covert or usually shown, not kinetic action, we have been very clear informing our countrymen, [through] Complan Mulat and other pronouncements, that we should be very deliberate in receiving deceptive messages,” Trinidad said, referring to the communication plan of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) that aims to bolster transparency, counter disinformation, and enhance public awareness regarding the Philippines' rights and interests in the WPS.
Meanwhile, the AFP said a total of 260 various vessels were monitored in the WPS in February.
These included 19 People’s Liberation Army – Navy (PLA-N) and China Coast Guard (CCG) vessels in Ayungin Shoal, Sabina (Escoda) Shoal, and Bajo de Masinloc (Scarborough or Panatag Shoal).
“Their persistent illegal presence in the West Philippine Sea blatantly disregards the 2016 Arbitral Tribunal ruling and infringes upon our sovereignty and sovereign rights,” AFP spokesperson Col. Francel Margareth Padilla said.