Philippines says China vessels have left disputed Scarborough Shoal

Chinese ships were no longer at the disputed Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea and Philippine boats could resume fishing, the Philippine defence minister said on Friday, calling the departure a “welcome development”.

Philippine fishermen could access the shoal unimpeded for the first time in four years, Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said, capping off a startling turnaround in ties since his country rattled China in 2013 by challenging its maritime claims at an international tribunal.

The departure of the Chinese coastguard comes after Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s high-profile visit to Beijing and follows his repeated requests for China to end its blockade of the shoal, a tranquil lagoon rich in fish stocks.

“Since three days ago there are no longer Chinese ships, coastguard or navy, in the Scarborough area,” Lorenzana told reporters. “If the Chinese ships have left then it means our fishermen can resume fishing in the area.”

Though the shoal is comprised of only a few rocks poking above the sea some 230km off the Philippine mainland, it is symbolic of the country’s efforts to assert its maritime sovereignty claims.

Lorenzana did not explain the circumstances of the Chinese vessels leaving the shoal, which was the centrepiece of a case Manila filed in 2013 at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague.

Asked on Friday about the return of Philippine fishermen to the shoal, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang made no mention of a coastguard withdrawal.