Several Chinese vessels were observed by the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) to be conducting “search patterns” off Bajo de Masinloc (Scarborough or Panatag Shoal) in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) after the collision of its coast guard and navy vessels on Monday, Aug. 11.

In a press conference on Tuesday, Aug. 12, PCG spokesperson for WPS Commodore Jay Tarriela said the Chinese vessels were monitored to be moving in a parallel sweep pattern which indicates a systematic search method.

“While we are monitoring the damaged China Coast Guard [vessel], we saw some of the China Coast Guard vessels were in the vicinity. They launched their own rigid hull inflatable boats and they appeared to be searching for something or somebody,” he said.

“I cannot confirm the real intention of the Chinese maritime forces why are they doing such search parallel patterns,” he added.

Maritime security analyst Ray Powell posted a satellite image of what appears to be search and rescue operations involving one China Coast Guard (CCG) ship and nine Chinese maritime militia vessels off Bajo de Masinloc after the collision of CCG vessel “3104” and People’s Liberation Army-Navy (PLA-N) warship “164”.

He said the operations were being conducted approximately 15 to 25 nautical miles east of the shoal since the afternoon of Aug. 11. 

Powell, founder and director of SeaLight, a maritime transparency initiative at the Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation at Stanford University, added that the damaged vessel, CCG-3104, had been AIS-“dark” or undetected by the automatic identification system.

Tarriela said the PCG received unverified reports that there were casualties after the collision of the two Chinese vessels while chasing PCG vessel BRP Suluan.

Prior to the collision, Tarriela said there were at least four CCG personnel on the bow of CCG-3104 and one of them could be seen in a video released by the PCG putting a fender in front of the coast guard ship to minimize the impact of the crash.

“Immediately after the impact, we no longer saw the four personnel in front of the ship. That is the reason why the Philippine Coast Guard offered our assistance because we were assuming that there were personnel who went overboard because of the impact. There’s also a possibility that some of them sustained injury,” he stated.

But he said the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has yet to confirm whether there were indeed casualties from the maritime mishap.

“As of this time, there are no official reports that reached the attention of the Philippine Coast Guard that would confirm there are casualties because of the maritime incident,” Tarriela said. “Our thoughts and prayers are still with those Chinese coast guard who [may be] injured because of the incident.”