Philippine officials are investigating scarborough shoal satellite imagery captured on May 28 that shows an unidentified object at the southern mouth of the shoal’s lagoon. Gilberto Teodoro Jr., the Philippine defense secretary, said he had received “raw information” about possible Chinese structures there, but no answer yet on what the object is.
The object appeared at the entrance to Scarborough Shoal, also known in the Philippines as Bajo de Masinloc and in China as Huangyan Island. SeaLight said the object appeared to be less than 10 meters in diameter, about 32 feet, and that it was unclear whether it was fixed to the reef or floating like a buoy.
SeaLight Images on May 27
SeaLight released imagery taken on May 27 showing a linear feature resembling a floating barrier across the entrance to Scarborough Shoal. On Sunday, SeaLight said the object in the May 28 image remained unclear. Ray Powell said, “If this object is confirmed to be a fixed installation, it would raise questions about compliance with the 2002 Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea, which calls for self-restraint and avoiding actions that complicate disputes or alter the status quo on contested, uninhabited features,”
China has exercised de facto control over Scarborough Shoal since a tense standoff in 2012, and China’s coast guard maintains a continuous presence there. China has also deployed barriers in the past that Philippine personnel later removed to block local anglers from entering the lagoon.
Philippine Investigation in Singapore
Teodoro said on the sidelines of the Shangri-La security summit in Singapore, “Up to now I have not received any confirmation what that is or what the nature of that thing is,” and Philippine officials said the National Security Council has been tasked with leading the investigation. The Philippine military said on Tuesday that it tracked 82 Chinese coast guard and navy vessels within the country’s exclusive economic zone in May, including 39 around Scarborough Shoal alone.
That backdrop gives the imagery immediate weight for Manila: a fixed structure at the shoal would sit inside a contested feature where China already keeps ships in place and where the Philippines is now trying to determine whether the May 28 object changes the physical layout at the lagoon entrance. The shoal sits within the Philippines’ exclusive economic waters and remains one of the most sensitive points in the South China Sea dispute, a waterway that carries more than $3 trillion in annual maritime trade.
