![\"Chinese](\"http:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Chinese-Coast-Guard-Photo-300x186.jpg\" "\\"Chinese")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
SUBIC, Zambales<\/span><\/strong>. Chinese Coast Guard rubber boats rammed and damaged a boat carrying 11 Filipino fishermen at Panatag Shoal (international name: Scarborough Shoal) last month, in a move likely to heighten tensions between the Philippines and China in the hotly disputed South China Sea.<\/p>\n The fishermen, who arrived in Subic after a 16-day fishing trip to Panatag Shoal, said they were driven away by the Chinese Coast Guard twice, on March 5 and 6.<\/p>\n China seized the shoal from the Philippines after a two-month standoff between Chinese and Philippine vessels in 2012.<\/p>\n It has since cordoned off the shoal, driving away Filipino fishermen from their traditional fishing ground.<\/p>\n Junmar Pumicpic, 25, captain of the FB Bubhoy, said they were fishing near the shoal around 9 a.m. on March 5 when Chinese coast guards in rubber boats arrived and drove them away.<\/p>\n Well within PH territory<\/strong><\/p>\n The shoal is located 230 kilometers from Masinloc, Zambales province, well within the Philippines\u2019 370-km exclusive economic zone. It is also known as Bajo de Masinloc to residents of this coastal town.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of their rubber boats carried three men in uniform. They approached us and told us in English to leave,\u201d Pumicpic said.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is China Coast Guard. Go back to Subic,\u201d he said, quoting one of the Chinese coast guards as saying to them.<\/p>\n Another member of the fishing trip, Reynante Caitum, 22, said the Chinese coast guards engaged them in a \u201ctug of war,\u201d pulling the rope tied to a small boat that was aboard the fishing vessel.<\/p>\n \u201cThey wanted to get our service boat, but we resisted. We lifted the anchor to pull away and save our lives,\u201d Caitum said.<\/p>\n Pumicpic said the Chinese coast guards came again on March 6 and drove them away shining blinding laser devices and powerful lights on them. The incidents were captured on video, Pumicpic said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" SUBIC, Zambales. Chinese Coast Guard rubber boats rammed and damaged a boat carrying 11 Filipino fishermen at Panatag Shoal (international name: Scarborough Shoal) last month, in a move likely to heighten tensions between the Philippines and China in the hotly disputed South China Sea.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[70],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4348"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4348\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}