For Filipino fishermen, a trip to Panatag Shoal in the West Philippine Sea is an uncomfortable one at the best of times. For a team of Reuters landlubbers making a reporting trip to the disputed shoal, there were other challenges—the lack of any toilets apart from the sea, sleeping wedged on the open deck, and most of all, the constant worry that the Chinese Coast Guard would try to drive us away. Panatag Shoal, internationally known as Scarborough Shoal, lies 230 kilometers from the coast of Zambales province, on the main Philippine island of Luzon, in the West Philippine Sea, waters within Manila’s 370-km exclusive economic zone ( EEZ) in the South China Sea.

Panatag: ‘Waterworld’ of South China Sea. (2017, April 13). Philippine Daily Inquirer, p. A3.