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A Philippines coast guard ship anchored in the disputed South China Sea has been withdrawn, officials in Manila said according to local media.
The Teresa Magbanua vessel of the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) sailed back to port on Sunday, Philippine News Agency reported. The ship went back after five months of patrolling around Sabina, a shoal within the Philippine exclusive economic zone where China is accused of carrying out illegal reclamation activities. Lucas Bersamin, executive secretary to Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., said the "repositioning" of the ship would allow for repairs and medical attention needed by its crew. "After she has been resupplied and repaired, and her crew recharged, she will be in tiptop shape to resume her mission, along with other PCG and AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) assets, as defenders of our sovereignty," Bersamin said in a statement. Bersamin, who is also the National Maritime Council Chairperson, said that during the ship's deployment to the Escoda Shoal also known as the Sabina Shoal, it was "challenged an encirclement by a larger flotilla of intruders" and battled inclement weather, with her crew surviving on "diminished daily provisions." On August 31 this year, the Teresa Magbanua was rammed into by a China Coast Guard vessel, which caused structural damage to the Philippine ship. China has alleged that the "illegally stranded" Philippine ship "deliberately rammed" a Chinese vessel. Last month, Chinese vessels blocked a resupply mission for Filipino sailors on board the ship.A Philippine Navy official has said that the "maritime patrols of the Navy ships and air surveillance flights of the Air Force and Navy aircraft will continue in all Philippine-held features in the West Philippine Sea," Navy spokesperson for the WPS, Rear Admiral Roy Vincent Trinidad said in a message to reporters as cited by PNA news outlet. Even with the vessel's pullout, the Philippines will not lose any of its controlled features in the WPS, Trinidad was cited as saying. On September 11, the Philippine and Chinese governments held "frank and candid" talks on the contested Escoda Shoal. At the 10th Bilateral Consultation Mechanism meeting on the South China Sea held on September 11 in Beijing, Philippines Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Ma Theresa Lazaro said her country has jurisdiction over the shoal even as Beijing reiterated its demand for the withdrawal of the Philippine vessel. Meanwhile, In July this year both China and the Philippines reached a temporary agreement to ease tensions at Second Thomas Shoal, another marine feature also in the disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea. (ANI)
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