AT least eight Chinese vessels have been sighted off Escoda (Sabina) Shoal, a feature located in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) that is under the jurisdiction of Pag-asa village in the Kalayaan town in Palawan.

Based on monitoring by Sealight, a US-based maritime transparency project that monitors and reports activities in the South China Sea, the Chinese maritime militia (CMM) ships have been spotted off the shoal, which lies just 124 nautical miles from Palawan island, and thus well inside the Philippine exclusive economic zone.