The Philippines wants to ink a deal with Ottawa that it hopes could lead to joint operations with the Canadian Coast Guard. This would be the latest in a growing number of assignments that Canada has been shouldering to help Manila address illegal fishing – much of it from China – and territorial disputes with Beijing.
Canada is already sharing satellite data with the Philippines to help it identify illegal fishing vessels plying its waters and last month the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) conducted joint aerial patrols in the region to identify fishing violations. Both are examples of the federal government’s 2022 Indo-Pacific policy, which calls for a greater presence in the region.
Commodore Jay Tarriela, spokesman for the Philippine Coast Guard, said in a recent interview that his country is seeking to revive a proposal for a memorandum of understanding with Canada to deepen maritime security co-operation.
He said enlisting allied coast guards for joint operations in Philippine waters is a way of addressing challenges posed by the Chinese maritime militia: fishing vessels that Beijing uses to enforce its disputed claims in the South China Sea.
Cmdre. Tarriela said operations with friendly foreign coast guard ships is a way of helping Manila boost what he calls maritime domain awareness – timely information on what is taking place – without using warships that could be accused of contributing to the militarization of the South China Sea.
Last month, Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans conducted Operation Bantay Lawud (Sea Guardian), a two-week joint aerial patrol with the Philippines to protect the western Pacific region from illegal fishing. A Canadian government Dash-8 aerial surveillance aircraft spent 70 hours flying and covered 22,000 square kilometres.
More than 88 potential violations were detected, according to Sean Wheeler, chief of international enforcement at Fisheries. He said Canadian fisheries officers also provided high-seas inspection training to Philippines counterparts.
Roy Ortega, an officer with the country’s Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, reportedly described the patrol with Canadians as an “eye-opener” when speaking to reporters in Manila earlier this month.
Vina Nadjibulla vice-president of research and strategy at the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, said aerial patrols and satellite imagery to fight illegal fishing represent “one of the most promising, concrete, practical things that Canada is doing in the Indo-Pacific.”
However, she said there’s room for Canada to do more. “It’s time for us to really develop a strategic relationship and move beyond just episodic engagement on things like this.”
Ms. Nadjibulla said Ottawa also should consider transferring its Coast Guard vessels to Manila after these have been replaced with new ships.
Canada has for months been sharing satellite data with the Philippines to help it identify illegal fishing vessels in its waters through Ottawa’s Dark Vessel Detection program. This past summer, Cmdre. Tarriela took to X to publicly acknowledge Ottawa’s help in tracking the movements of Chinese coast guard vessel CCG-5901, a ship that has been accused by Manila of acts of intimidation on behalf of Beijing.
China and the Philippines have competing claims in the South China Sea and they have accused each other of aggressive behaviour involving their ships and of damaging the marine environment. The Canadian government’s Dark Vessel Detection program relies on satellites to locate and track vessels whose location-transmitting devices have been switched off. These are sometimes called dark ships or dark vessels.
Close to 385,000 Filipinos rely on fishing grounds in the West Philippine Sea for their livelihood. That’s the name for the portion of the South China Sea within the Philippines’s exclusive economic zone, the area of ocean offshore where a country claims exclusive rights regarding the exploration and exploitation of marine resources.
Last fall, for the second year in a row, Canada’s DFO took the lead on an annual international enforcement mission to combat illegal fishing in the North Pacific Ocean.
Canada’s satellite imagery is helping the Philippines find Chinese vessels that park themselves in disputed waters to try to solidify Beijing’s claim. “It has supported our capability in monitoring not just the Chinese maritime militia, but even the Chinese coast guard vessels,” Cmdre. Tarriela said.
“Every once in a while, these maritime forces of the Chinese government turn off their automatic identification system, and it makes it very difficult for us to trace their deployment,” he said.
“So using the dark vessel detection, we are able to pinpoint possible locations of those maritime forces that they have deployed, even if they have turned off their AIS.”