Chinese vessels are likely to disrupt next week's civilian Christmas convoy to the West Philippine Sea, Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) Commandant Ronnie Gil Gavan said Tuesday.

“The chance for a Chinese fishing vessel, which we suspect to be a maritime militia, to disrupt is always there because Julian Felipe Reef is not the only place they converge. They are everywhere,” Gavan told reporters.

The PCG earlier reported that there were 135 Chinese vessels spotted swarming Julian Felipe Reef, which is 175 nautical miles west of Bataraza, Palawan.

The PCG deployed two ships to verify the presence of the Chinese vessels and issued a radio challenge but received no response.

Gavan said the Chinese ships were still at the reef but there was “no activity so far that can cause serious concern.

“So far they are still there and we are closely watching them. There’s no activity so far that can cause serious concern except for the fact that the presence of these fishing boats can be construed as a way for them to legitimize their claim by presence,” he said.

“So we are very serious about asserting our intent to protect what is ours. So we are consistently and persistently conducting patrols in the area,” he added.

Meanwhile, Gavan mentioned the PCG will be placing a vessel traffic monitoring system which will allow them to have better maritime domain awareness.

Gavan said their plan to expand the PCG to have more personnel had nothing to do with the tensions happening in the West Philippine Sea.

“We expect not only 37,000. We expect that we should be manned with at least 105,000 coast guards to be able to field at least three coast guards in every kilometer of our shoreline,” he said. Jaspearl Tan/DMS