Two China Coast Guard (CCG) vessels were detected around 34 nautical miles off the coast of Pangasinan, the Philippine Coast Guard said Sunday.

In a statement, PCG Spokesperson for the West Philippine Sea Commodore Jay Tarriela said they deployed an Islander aircraft to “visually identify” the ships and issue a radio challenge.

He said that at 9:30 am, the aircraft identified the vessels as CCG 3301 and CCG 3104, which did not respond to the PCG’s radio challenge.

According to Tarriela, PCG vessels BRP Cabra and BRP Bagacay were deployed to Pangasinan.

“Two PCG vessels, BRP Cabra (MRRV-4409) and BRP Bagacay (MRRV-4410) both 44-meter ships, have been dispatched to Bolinao, Pangasinan, to address the illegal presence of the China Coast Guard and reinforce the Philippine government's position against the normalization of illegal patrols by the People's Republic of China (PRC) within the Philippine Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ),” Tarriela said on X (formerly Twitter). Jaspearl Tan/DMS