The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) said Tuesday that China's new policy that allows its coast guards to detain foreign "trespassers" in parts of the South China Sea it claims was an "empty threat".

In an interview with dzBB, PCG Spokesperson for the West Philippine Sea Commodore Jay Tarriela said that the policy, which took effect on June 15, was meant to discourage Filipino fishermen and civilian convoys from going to Scarborough Shoal.

“China is just using that new regulation as an empty threat to discourage Filipino fishermen and of course, civil society. We know that the day that China declared this rule was also on the day that Miss Rafaela David (co-convenor of the Atin Ito Coalition) reported to the Filipino people that their (civilian supply) mission to Bajo de Masinloc was successful,” Tarriela told dzBB.

In May, Atin Ito Coalition declared its mission “successful” after being able to conduct a peace and solidarity regata composed of 100 fishing boats, placing symbolic markers in the West Philippine Sea and providing food and fuel to fishermen.

Tarriela said if China were serious about enforcing its new policy, it would have deployed more vessels to the Shoal.

“We saw how fast they could deploy their assets. We witnessed that during the Atin Ito convoy, wherein they deployed as many as 12 China Coast Guard and even more than 30 Maritime Militia,” he said.

“But this time, this is actually lesser than the usual number of the China Coast Guards that they deploy because usually there are four China Coast Guards and 10 Maritime Militia,'' he said.

He attributed the increase in fishermen to the PCG’s deployment of BRP Sindangan and BRP Malapascua. Jaspearl Tan/DMS