The Philippine Coast Guard has driven away an unauthorized foreign fishing vessel from the territorial waters of Kota Island in Palawan on October 18.
The PCG said its High-Speed Response Boat HSRB-019 spotted the vessel about 1.75 nautical miles north-northwest of the island, within the Philippines’ 12-nautical-mile territorial sea.
The response boat immediately joined two PCG rubber boats already monitoring the vessel. They issued repeated radio warnings, directing it to leave the area.
The foreign fishing vessel eventually withdrew without incident.
This marks the PCG’s fourth operation in three weeks to drive away foreign vessels from Kota Island.
The recent one was on October 15, where the PCG also drove away a Chinese fishing vessel and four small boats from the waters of Lawak Island.
Kota Island is part of the Municipality of Kalayaan in Palawan.