AFP Says China Waging 'Synchronized' Pressure Campaign Across Batanes, Bajo de Masinloc and Ayungin Shoal

AFP spokesperson for the West Philippine Sea, retired Rear Admiral Roy Vincent Trinidad, said on September 8, 2026 that Chinese activity across three separate flashpoints — the Batanes sovereignty claim pushed by mainland Chinese academics, Bajo de Masinloc (Scarborough Shoal), and Ayungin (Second Thomas) Shoal — should not be read as isolated incidents but as 'synchronized, persistent efforts' of foreign malign influence 'to show to the public, first and foremost, and to the world that the AFP and the government have failed to secure and to protect our sovereignty and sovereign rights.' Trinidad said the Batanes narrative traces to a group of academics from mainland China and is designed to sow confusion and dilute confidence in government. He separately confirmed that Chinese fighter jets intercepted a Philippine patrol aircraft over Bajo de Masinloc on September 2, with one Chinese aircraft placing the Philippine plane under its weapons crosshairs, and that the AFP had also been monitoring a Chinese research vessel (Haiyang Dizhi Shihao) and five PLA Navy warships in the area. Asked separately about the redeployment of the carrier strike group USS George Washington from the Pacific to the Middle East to relieve USS Nimitz, Trinidad said the AFP's mandate to defend Philippine territory, sovereignty and sovereign rights 'is not contingent' on the presence of any single foreign asset and that patrol operations continue unaffected.