The passing of each day is slow and tedious for a small group of soldiers deployed to the Nido observation post, a former gas platform that has been turned into a military outpost located northwest of this island province. In between shifts, there is not much to do to pass the time except go fishing, exercise, watch television, or surf the internet depending on the limited power supply provided by generators. For a period ranging from a month to half a year, the soldiers spend the day monitoring ships passing through the area. But Chinese ships, which have been brazenly encroaching on the country’s exclusive economic zone and blocking supply missions in Ayungin (Second Thomas) Shoal, are a rare sight here.

Mangosing, F. (2023, September 4). Troops at Nido outpost see vital role amid isolation. Philippine Daily Inquirer, pp. A1, A4.