MANILA (Reuters) -- The Philippine Coast Guard has stepped up its presence in the disputed South China Sea by deploying additional vessels and conducting more sorties and overflights to protect maritime territory and the country’s fishermen, its chief said on Monday.
Beijing’s sweeping claims of sovereignty over the waterway have drawn repeated complaints from Manila, which has ramped up its rhetoric against reported Chinese construction activities and the “swarming” of Chinese vessels in the resource-rich waterway.
“We’re making sure that the presence of coast guard vessels is felt by the fishermen in the area,” Admiral Artemio Abu, Commandant of the Philippines Coast Guard (PCG), said in an interview.
Beijing claims much of the South China Sea, where about $3 trillion in ship-borne trade passes annually, with the area becoming a flashpoint for Chinese and U.S. tensions around naval operations.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, who succeeded Duterte, has vowed he would not lose an inch of territory to any foreign power. Since 2002, the Philippines has filed 200 diplomatic notes and protests against China’s actions in the South China Sea.
Last month, Marcos met Chinese President Xi Jinping and the leaders reaffirmed that their countries would respect each other’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
But Marcos last week approved a U.S. request for expanded access to Philippine military bases, as Washington seeks to extend its security options as part of efforts to deter what it perceives as China’s aggressive policies in the region.
The Pentagon also said separately the United States and the Philippines had “agreed to restart joint maritime patrols in the South China Sea to help address these challenges.”
PCG’s Abu said the coast guard’s acquisition of more advanced vessels, including a 97-metre (318.24-ft) multi-role response vessel last year, had allowed it to increase the number and duration of trips in the South China Sea.
“We can stay there longer, farther and we can we can cover a bigger area now,” said Abu.