The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) said that it is monitoring two Chinese research vessels amid recovering at least six underwater drones from China from Philippine waters.

In a radio interview, PCG Spokesperson for West Philippine Sea Commodore Jay Tarriela said that the drones were turned over to the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

“With regard to the drone, these are turned over to the Armed Forces of the Philippines. I’m not really sure about the accurate number, but from what I know there were already six to seven underwater drones that they retrieved,” Tarriela said.

In a press conference on Tuesday, Tarriela identified the research vessels as Xiang Yang Hong 302 and Tan Suo Er Hao.

Xiang Yang Hong 302 departed Hainan on May 1 and was located 180 nautical miles of the coast of Rizal, Palawan as of 8 am Tuesday, while Tan Suo Er Hao departed Hainan on May 8 and was located 130.5 nautical miles off Burgos, Ilocos Norte, said Tarriela.

Tarriela said the Chinese research vessels are capable of deep-sea research.

“The capability of this Chinese research vessel is to conduct deep sea surveying. This is the reason why it is also equipped with remotely operated vehicles and private underwater drones,” Tarriela added.

Tarriela also pointed out that Vietnam, Indonesia, and Malaysia also reported sightings of underwater drones from China.

“I think with the presence of these Chinese research vessels and the markings of the drones that we’ve seen and retrieved here, there’s no other country that we can doubt who would be doing this,” Tarriela said.

“And it’s not just here in the Philippine waters who experience this. Even our Southeast Asian neighbors are experiencing and complaining about these drones that they’ve recovered. Even Vietnam, Indonesia, and Malaysia are also retrieving underwater drones that have Chinese markings,” he added.

Tarriela said the PCG recently challenged two Chinese research vessels within the country’s exclusive economic zones, with the PCG sending an aircraft to monitor the ships.

“Recently, we flew our aircraft to physically monitor these Chinese research vessels. Based on our maritime domain awareness flight yesterday, two research vessels of China were challenged and documented by our aircraft,” Tarriela explained. Yzabela Velez-White/DMS