A CHINESE research vessel that stayed a few days in Philippine waters had clearance from the Department of Foreign Affairs to seek shelter, owing to bad weather, but not to stay, the DFA clarified on Tuesday, after the ship had departed—but not before stirring up another social- media frenzy.
“A Chinese research vessel was given authority by the [DFA] to seek shelter in Philippine waters to evade bad weather but not to stay,” Secretary Teodoro L. Locsin Jr. said in a tweet, to stop social media from muddying the issue.
Locsin added that the request for shelter was made on Saturday, “before any report of intrusion why it was an emergency,” noting that the request did not mean the “permission to stay and be watched.”
The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) based in Catanduanes reportedly deployed boats to board the said vessel, but was refused by the captain of the ship, Jia Geng, “due to health protocols.”
The DFA chief added: “PCG said it gave them a radio challenge/attempted to board; Chinese didn’t allow them. So they didn’t. We gave go-signal 31 Jan. Reconcile these stories, you get DFA’s Making Sense in a Pandemic Award.”
Locsin continued, “My MOAO clarifies: Thurs 28 Jan Beijing PE reported a phoned-in request to allow Chinese marine research vessel to take wind shelter in Cabugao Bay. Friday, Note Verbale from Chinese Embassy same request. They were in PH EEZ on Wed27Jan.’”
The Jia Geng entered the country’s exclusive economic zone on January 25, Monday.
Two days later, Ryan Martinson of the US Naval War College posted on Twitter that the ship was “back operating in the Philippines exclusive economic zone. Current location about [242 kilometers] east of Samar.”
The documents showed that the Jia Geng was a “marine scientific research vessel of China,” the Coast Guard said in a report.
“On January 30, the Department of Foreign Affairs informed the PCG that the Chinese Embassy [was] requesting … diplomatic clearance for said vessel to take shelter in Catanduanes due to bad weather and sea condition,” the report said.
The Chinese Embassy on Monday issued a statement saying, “the fact is that the Chinese scientific survey ship is seeking humanitarian shelter in Philippine waters due to unfavorable weather and sea conditions in the Pacific where they are scheduled to conduct research mission.”
When the ship left on Monday, 6 a.m., a “PCG Islander plane was…dispatched to overfly while said vessel [was] exiting our waters,” the Coast Guard said in its report.