Zambales resolves to reclaim fishing grounds in West Philippine Sea

By Henry Empeño | July 12, 2026

MASINLOC, Zambales — Most of its deep-sea fishing boats may be grounded for now, unused over a decade of harassment by Chinese militia vessels in the West Philippine Sea (WPS), but Zambales is aiming to reclaim lost ground in the contested waters near the Scarborough Shoal.

Last Friday, July 10, in a ceremony commemorating the 10th anniversary of the 2016 Arbitral Ruling that upheld Philippine sovereign rights over the WPS, the provincial government of Zambales reasserted its claim over the Scarborough, or Bajo de Masinloc, which fell into Chinese control after a standoff in 2012.

“Scarborough is ours!” Gov. Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. declared to the wild applause of residents and government officials at the “Bayanihan sa Karagatan” ceremony here on Friday.

“Let us always remember this, let us keep it in our hearts, and let us shout it to the whole world,” he added.

Ebdane recalled that as early as March 16, 2011, the municipality of Masinloc had formally declared through a council resolution that Bajo de Masinloc is part of the town’s territory.

“This only shows that our local government stands firm on this issue and won’t ever capitulate in defending the welfare of our constituents,” the governor said.

“Defending our sovereignty is not a fight for just a few,” Ebdane reminded Zambales residents. “It needs collective action and a united stand.”

STRATEGIC SPEARHEAD

Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr., who was guest of honor in Friday’s Masinloc commemoration, also stressed the importance of Bajo de Masinloc in the broader context of defending the WPS.

“We are here in Masinloc today because you are the spearhead in the fight for Bajo de Masinloc,” he told the assembled fisherfolk and local officials.

“But how can we last for the fight if we don’t have the support from those in the Visayas and in Mindanao?” he added. “We have to make the whole country feel how important it is to stand firm.”

The Defense chief also warned that should there be no pushback against foreign incursion in WPS, Scarborough may suffer the same fate as that of Mischief Reef, located 135 nautical miles west of Palawan.

He pointed out that China established at Mischief Reef in 1995 what it called fishermen’s shelters, but had since turned it into a militarized artificial island.

“This is why we have to make a stand here now,” Teodoro said.

BULLIED AND BLUNTED

For Zambales fisherfolk, however, that spearhead had been dulled and dented by incessant Chinese harassment at the West Philippine Sea for over a decade.

In Friday’s forum after Sec. Teodoro ceremonially turned over some fishing gear and food packs to fishermen here, Paulo Quitaneg, president of the Zambales Provincial Fishermen’s Association (ZPFA), bemoaned the plight of the 28,000 Zambales fisherfolk who could no longer access Bajo de Masinloc.

Quitaneg said Chinese coast guard ships and militia boats prevent the entry of local fishermen into the shoal and even cut the ropes anchoring their fish aggregating devices, or payaos, installed in nearby waters.

Bajo de Masinloc, which literally translates to “Masinloc shallows,” is about 124 nautical miles off the coast of the town from which it was named.

For decades, local fishers have fished in the waters in and around the shoal and considered these their traditional fishing grounds, said Efren Forones, who used to captain a fishing boat that ventured into Scarborough in the early 2000’s.

Forones used to bring home P5,000 as captain’s salary per fishing trip on top of the extra income from his personal catch out at sea. Now, he lives off the marginal income from fishing with a small fiberglass boat issued by the government to municipal fishermen.

“Fishing was very good in those days,” Forones fondly recalled in an interview last May, as he rested in the shade of the grounded FBCA La Salvia, a deep-sea boat that was captained by his brother-in-law Viany. “You cannot compare those days with today,” he said.

SYMBOLS AND STRUGGLE

Despite the 2016 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, which invalidated China’s nine-dash-line in the South China Sea and affirmed Philippine sovereignty over waters within the country’s 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone, the Chinese continue to maintain a chokehold over Scarborough.

In an earlier interview with BusinessMirror, Leonardo Cuaresma, president of the New Masinloc Fishermen’s Association (NMFA), recalled that Masinloc fishermen literally jumped for joy when the arbitral ruling came out, especially when (then President) Rodrigo Duterte announced that locals can now peaceably fish at Bajo de Masinloc, along with the Chinese.

“But it turned out to be a lie,” Cuaresma said. He lamented that Duterte later treated the ruling as a mere scrap of paper, and bullying and water-cannoning by the Chinese persisted.

In June 2024, China made matters worse for Filipino fishers when it imposed a “no trespassing” policy at Scarborough and barred fishing within a 40-nautical-mile perimeter around the shoal. Local fishermen had no choice but to fish elsewhere.

The 2016 Arbitral Ruling became “just a symbolic victory for us fishermen,” Cuaresma said.

SOLUTIONS AND SUBSTANCE

The sad plight of local fishermen, however, did not escape the attention of the Zambales local government units, said Gov. Ebdane.

He pointed out that LGUs had to provide assistance every time residents get economically displaced by disasters, calamities, or other emergencies. “So, the problem borne by the geopolitical conflict at West Philippine Sea is a deep concern for us,” he said.

In the July 10 Arbitral Ruling commemoration, Gov. Ebdane proudly disclosed that the Zambales LGU will soon deliver a 92-footer steel-hulled harvester boat to be operated by the Zambales Provincial Fishermen’s Association (ZPFA), a federation of 10 fisherfolk groups in the province.

“We fully feel the ordeal you go through,” Ebdane told the fishermen on Friday. “You are the living proof of our rights over these waters, and that is why we won’t ever give us this fight.”

Ebdane said the provincial government started organizing fisherfolk into cooperatives early last year to kick off an alternative livelihood program for those displaced by the Bajo de Masinloc blockade.

Initially assisting them with boats and gears for payao operations within the 15-nautical mile limit of municipal waters, the local initiative soon developed into a long-term program for local fishery modernization and sustainability.

In January this year, the provincial government delivered two 45-footer fiberglass-hulled auxiliary fishing boats to the ZPFA, with two bigger boats being built by a shipbuilder in Cavite.

Last Friday, Ebdane promised the fisherfolk that the 92-footer steel-hulled harvester boat will be delivered within two months to start the ZPFA payao program.

As of now, he said, the first batch of ZPFA members are undergoing training on modern boat operation and safety at sea at the Philippine Merchant Marine Academy in San Narciso, Zambales.

CONVERGENCE AND COOPERATION

In last Friday’s WPS commemoration ceremony here, Mayor Hazel Lim said the apparent lack of enforcement mechanism for the 2016 Arbitral Ruling  makes it more necessary for Filipinos to assert the WPS victory.

“The arbitral ruling proves that the law is on our side,” Lim said. “It is important for us to celebrate the ruling which affirmed our rights because these rights cannot be taken away just because some people refuse to acknowledge them.”

Sec. Teodoro, meanwhile, hammered home the point that defending the West Philippine Sea also requires strengthening pubic understanding of the issue, national unity, and collective support to protect the nation’s maritime domain.

“In this fight, we won’t win if we don’t get the support of our people,” he said.

Teodoro also assured local fishermen that the government is looking for ways to resolve the impasse at Bajo de Masinloc.

“We are looking at various options with the objective of having our fishermen freely fishing there at the soonest possible time, but this is not along the line proposed by the Ambassador of China, which calls for joint fishing rights,” he said.

“We already won that in the Arbitral Ruling; it’s our right, so why do we have to get their permission?” he added.

Teodoro said that in the meantime, the task is to improve the livelihood of fisherfolk. Her promised make it his personal priority to provide Zambales with a cold storage or blast freezing unit, so that fishermen can store their catch and market them elsewhere.

 “The boat being built by the provincial government under Gov. Ebdane is also one good option,” he also said. ▲