The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) drove away Chinese Maritime Militia Vessel (CMMV) 9622 and twenty-four (24) small boats (“sampans”) it deployed within the territorial sea of Kota Island, Kalayaan Island Group (KIG), on 28 September 2026.
At around 10:00 AM, PCG personnel on Kota Island monitored CMMV 9622 lying-to about 1.2 nautical miles northwest of the island as it launched 24 sampans, each manned by two individuals. The small boats spread out at roughly 50-yard intervals and were later observed circling within 300 yards of the island, engaged in fishing.
At 11:00 AM, a five-man PCG team assigned to Coast Guard Station Kota deployed on a rubber boat to challenge the vessels. CMMV 9622 ignored radio challenges, and its crews acknowledged instructions to leave only through hand signals. Upon the arrival of the PCG team, the mothership and all 24 sampans immediately withdrew from the area. All PCG personnel returned safely to station with no untoward incident.
Launching two dozen small boats from a single militia platform is a force-multiplying tactic that extends the mothership’s reach and reinforces Chinese presence under a civilian appearance, below the threshold of overt coercion.
Kota Island is an integral part of the Municipality of Kalayaan, Palawan. Fishing by foreign vessels within its territorial sea, without Philippine authority, violates Philippine sovereignty, Philippine fisheries laws, and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). CMMV 9622’s refusal to answer radio challenges likewise disregards basic norms of good seamanship.
The PCG will sustain its presence on and around Kota Island, continue to challenge and drive away foreign vessels operating illegally in Philippine waters, and keep disclosing such activities to the Filipino people.
This operation is in accordance with the guidance of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., who has declared that the Philippines will not be cowed into silence, submission, or subservience in the face of illegal and coercive actions by the China Coast Guard and Chinese Maritime Militia, and who has called on Filipinos to defend what is ours with firm national resolve.
