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The number of Chinese vessels in the West Philippine Sea increased as the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) conducted a military exercise within the exclusive economic zone of the Philippines for the first time.

Based on the monitoring of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). the number of Chinese vessels in the West Philippine Sea from June 4 to 10 increased to 146 from a total of 125 from May 28 to 3.

In a press conference in Camp Aguinaldo on Tuesday, Philippine Navy spokesman for the West Philippine Sea (WPS) Commodore Roy Vincent Trinidad noted that the number of China PLAN vessels in the West Philippine Sea last week has doubled compared to the previous week.

"The increase is in the number of PLA Navy ships which could be attributed to the just concluded exercises conducted by the PLA Navy last June 2, 3 and 4 in the vicinity of Sabina Shoal," he said.

"This is the first time that we monitored an exercise by the PLA Navy within our EEZ," he added.

Trinidad said the maritime exercise conducted by China includes "the launching and recovery of aircraft and hovercrafts, landing craft air cushions."

"It involved only the PLA Navy with two coast guard vessels in the vicinity, Chinese Coast Guard vessels in the vicinity," he said.

"The hovercrafts were launched by the landing ship of the PLA Navy, their landing ships have different capabilities just as any landing ship would have, they carry helicopters, they carry landing crafts or hovercraft," he added.

Just last week, Philippine Coast Guard spokesperson on the West Philippine Sea Commodore Jay Tarriela said that the Philippines was conducting a marine scientific survey in Sabina Shoal when the Chinese PLA Navy conducted their maritime exercise in the area.

Trinidad also mentioned that starting last week the AFP also monitored the presence of Chinese vessels in Rozul or Iroquois Reef.

"Our monitoring covers the nine features and recently we included Sabina Shoal and Whitsun Reef or Julian Felipe Reef and starting last week we also monitored their presence in Rozul or Iroquois reef, there were some 24 to 30 maritime militia," he said.

"They were just there, they were anchored, they were nested side by side, they were not doing any actions that would point to anything illegal except for their presence which has already been illegal so nothing to be concerned about," he added. Robina Asido/DMS