Joe M. Reyes | September 8, 2026
MANILA — At least five People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy surface vessels sailed and conducted an illegal drill within Philippine waters, a spokesman for the Armed Forces said.
Retired Rear Admiral Roy Vincent Trinidad, a military spokesman for the West Philippine Sea, said a Chinese surface action group was monitored holding a naval drill in the northeastern part of the country, from the last two weeks of August up to early September. (Also read: Philippines observes increased Chinese Coast Guard deployment in disputed waters)
“Four Chinese warships and one replenishment ship conducted a series of surface activities. They conducted different serials,” Trinidad told a press briefing at Camp Aguinaldo.
Trinidad said the Chinese ships maintained a distance of 70 nautical miles from the shoreline. “They ended up on the eastern part of Samar, roughly 45 nautical miles from the shoreline,” said Trinidad.
“This is a normal shipping route for ships, not only warships, coming from the northern part of the Philippines, specifically mainland China, Japan, and South Korea that would like to traverse to Indonesia or Australia,” added Trinidad.
Trinidad described the event as “innocent passage and/or freedom of navigation.”
“They were quite far from our shorelines when they passed the eastern seaboard,” said Trinidad.
Trinidad said the military does not consider the passage and the exercises a threat. (Also read: China holds naval and air drills near Scarborough Shoal)
“When they come to these choke points of the Philippines, we keep closer monitoring on them,” Trinidad added.
In a message, Trinidad said: “It is no reason to be alarmed.”
On reports that Chinese fighter aircraft were on patrol within Philippine military and coast guard aircraft on two occasions over Scarborough Shoal, Trinidad said these are “designed to weaken our resolve to keep performing our mandate.”
“On one instance, the crosshairs of the fighter aircraft had our aircraft on it...These are coercive and aggressive actions designed to show that they have control over the situation over the area,” said Trinidad.
Trinidad said the incidents would not weaken the military’s resolve in performing its mandate of protecting the country’s interests in the West Philippine Sea.
“Not only will we keep performing our mandate. We will keep working with our treaty ally and again other like-minded nations who have been very supportive of our stand of supporting international law,” said Trinidad.