Eight allied countries including Japan expressed interest to conduct joint patrols in the West Philippine Sea, Armed Force of the Philippine (AFP) officials said Saturday.

In a forum in Quezon City, Col. Medel Aguilar, AFP spokesman said aside from the United States, seven other countries including Japan, Australia, Malaysia, France, India, Canada and Singapore have expressed their interest to join the maritime patrols to ensure the freedom of navigation in the region.

"It’s always the establishment of a rules-based international order," he added.

During the same forum, Vice Admiral Alberto Carlos, AFP Western Command Chief confirmed the continued swarming of Chinese vessels in some features in the West Philippine Sea including the Rozul Reef or the Iroquois reef in the southern part of Recto Bank.

"We are monitoring the Recto Bank, that’s oil and gas rich based on a survey. And we also noticed them swarming in Nares Bank, that’s on the western side of the Recto Bank so they are getting close to Recto Bank," he said.

"We noticed five in Sabina or Escoda Shoal. We are concerned because Sabina is near Palawan, that’s the closest, less than a hundred nautical miles to the mainland of Palawan. And based on the latest report, the number of vessels in Iroquois or Rozul Reef increased to 40 as of last night," he added.

Carlos also mentioned about the swarming of Chinese vessels in Luzon, where an alleged coral harvesting was monitored.

"We pinpointed their swarming areas and then when they left, we sent out our divers… we sent out our divers to do an underwater survey and we noticed that there are no more corals, the corals were already damaged and then there was debris," he said.

"These are untrained eyes of the Navy divers, so we are coordinating with the scientist, the expert to do their own assessment of the area. We are not making any conclusions at this time, it’s a work in progress but we just want to report that we noticed coral harvesting in the area where they were seen loitering and swarming," he added. Robina Asido/DMS