The Philippine coast guard is running exercises at the South China Sea that a official said Sunday were part of efforts to procure”our marine jurisdiction” across the contested waters. )

The drills close to the Philippine-occupied Thitu Island and also China-controlled Scarborough Shoal come amid increased worries on the resource-rich sealevel.

The hottest diplomatic linking between both countries was brought about by the discovery past month of countless of Chinese vessels at the Spratly Islands.

Many of those ships have dispersed across the contested archipelago.

China — that maintains nearly the entirety of this ocean — has denied repeated demands by the Philippines to predict back the boats, which Manila says are marine militia boats and Beijing says are fishing ships.

In conclusion, the Philippines has set greater patrol vessels, for example coast guard and navy boats, to further intensify surveillance and also protect against illegal fishing.

The shore guard drills began past week.

“We’re encouraging the whole-of-nation approach in procuring our marine jurisdiction,” coast guard spokesman Commodore Armando Balilo reported.

The drills demand trained in navigation, small boat operations, maintenance and construction operations.

They’re now being held near Thitu Island and Scarborough Shoal, in addition to the Batanes islands at the northwest, and also the southern and eastern regions of the nation.

Scarborough — certainly one of this region’s richest fishing grounds — is definitely a flash point between Manila and Beijing.

China captured it by the Philippines at 2012 after a tense stand off.

The exercises started as Allied military held joint exercises with US soldiers who ended Friday.

Beijing has already ignored a 20-16 international tribunal decision that announced its historical claim on the majority of those South China Sea to be no foundation.

However, once-frosty connections between Manila and Beijing have heated under President Rodrigo Duterte, that reserve the judgment exchange for promises of both investment and trade.

The Native American and defence secretaries, nevertheless, are engaged in a war of words together with Beijing.

The foreign affairs section was filing daily protests across the boats as well as in a rare move, recently summoned Beijing’s envoy expressing its”extreme displeasure” on the matter.