Filipino soldiers have been withdrawn from joint naval exercises in the West Philippine Sea. President Rody Duterte has limited drills only to territorial seas 12 nautical miles from coast. “[He] has a standing order to us, to me, that we should not involve ourselves in naval exercises in the South China Sea, except our national waters, the 12-mile distance from our shores,” Defense Sec. Delfin Lorenzana said Aug. 3. The defense chief was asked about Duterte’s stated “inutility” against China’s maritime incursions. Duterte had purported that nothing can be done about the nuclear-armed neighbor’s expansive sea claims. (Twelve nautical miles equals 22.224 kilometers; Philippine law reserves up to 30 kilometers of internal municipal waters for small fishermen.) Lorenzana’s disclosure of Duterte’s order coincided with further Chinese trespasses in oil-and-gas rich Recto Bank, 80 miles off Palawan. Two ships, Xiang Yang Hong-14 and Haiyan Dizhi Hao-12, alternately station there, military sources said. XYH-14 was last seen Aug. 6-7, while HDH-12 lingered towards nearby China-grabbed Panganiban (Mischief) Reef. Chinese gunboats menace Philippine exploration vessels in Recto. In June 2019 a Chinese steel-hulled militia launch rammed an anchored Filipino wooden boat, then abandoned 22 fishermen thrown into the night sea.

Bondoc, J. (2020, August 12). Phl leaves joint naval patrols; Palau, Ecuador repel Chinese poachers. The Philippine Star, p. 9.