Malacanang said China appears to have stopped blocking Filipino fishermen from approaching the disputed Scarborough Shoal off Zambales province, handing a potential victory to President Duterte following his visit to Beijing last week. If the current situation holds, Duterte will enjoy an immediate reward for his push to pursue warmer relations with China and chart a foreign policy that is independent of the US, a long time ally. “For the past three days, it has been observed that there are no longer any Chinese Coast Guard and that Filipino fishing boats are no longer being intercepted,” presidential spokesman Ernesto Abello told reporters in Manila last Friday. Chinese vessels have long prevented Filipino fishermen from working in the Scarborough Shoal, a rich fishing ground that both countries claim as being rightfully theirs. An international tribunal at The Hague in July ruled that no country had sovereign rights to the shoal and that there was no legal basis to China’s claim to nearly the entire South China Sea.

Aben E. L. (2016, October 30). They're back to Scarborough. Manila Bulletin, pp. 1, 8.