Philippines vessel from contested South China Sea shoal returns to port

MANILA, Sept 15 - The Philippines is returning to port a coast guard vessel anchored in the contested Sabina Shoal in the South China Sea after a five-month deployment as its mission is accomplished, the maritime council said on Sunday.

Since April, coast guard vessel Teresa Magbanua was deployed to monitor what Manila suspects to be China's small-scale reclamation activities in the area. Its presence has angered Beijing, turning the shoal into the latest flashpoint in the contested waters.

"After more than five months at sea, where she carried out her sentinel duties against overwhelming odds, BRP Teresa Magbanua is now sailing back to her homeport with her mission accomplished," Lucas Bersamin, executive secretary and chairman of the National Maritime Council said in a statement.

Bersamin said Teresa Magbauna's return was necessary to the medical needs of its crew and to undergo repairs.

There was no immediate comment from the Chinese embassy in Manila.

The move followed high-level talks between Manila and Beijing in China last week where the Philippines reaffirmed its position on Sabina and China reiterated its demand that the vessel be withdrawn.

The area, which China refers to as Xianbin Reef and the Philippines as the Escoda Shoal, lies 150 km west of the Philippine province of Palawan, well within the country's exclusive economic zone.

Manila and Beijing have traded accusations of intentional ramming of each others' vessels in a series of clashes near Sabina last month, just after reaching a pact on resupply missions to a beached Filipino naval ship in the Second Thomas Shoal.

China claims sovereignty over most of the China Sea, overlapping into maritime zones of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam.

In 2016 the Hague arbitration tribunal voided China's expansive and historical claims, a decision Beijing rejects.

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