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The National Security Council (NSC) is looking at the possible leak of operational security information to China, following the recent blocking incident in Ayungin Shoal.

"Yes definitely, we are looking at that because operational security is very important in all the things that we do in the Armed Forces of the Philippines and it is one of the angles that we are looking into," National Security Council Assistant Director General Jonathan Malaya said in a radio interview on Tuesday.

''Based on our assessment of what happened (last August 5), China was prepared to block our vessels, in particular the two coast guard vessels and our two supply boats," he added.

"It is the job of every country to have good intelligence, of course China also has satellites. They have assets in our country, so for us it's our responsibility as a nation to maintain operational security," he added.

In a separate interview, acting Western Command spokesman Lt. Col. Isagani Nato said like the Philippine government, China may also monitor the movement of Philippine vessels in the West Philippine Sea through their Automatic Identification System (AIS).

"Our government has AIS, and of course China also have this. They are capable of monitoring the vessels that sail going to the area, and given that the Chinese vessels are already there, according to the Chief of Staff of the AFP There are 400 plus (ships), due to their volume they can immediately monitor the approaching ships," he said. Robina Asido/DMS