PEOPLE'S Liberation Army (PLA) of China fired multiple flares at an unarmed Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) aircraft conducting a Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) flight over the Kalayaan Island Group (KIG) on Monday, September 7, 2026, the PCG said.
In a statement on Thursday, September 10, 2026, the PCG said the Philippine aircraft, prior to landing on Pag-asa Island, received a radio challenge from Chinese forces “illegally” occupying Zamora (Subi) Reef before firing flares in its direction.
“Flares were fired at an unarmed Coast Guard aircraft. The PCG does not need to characterize this behavior,” PCG chief Admiral Ronnie Gil Gavan said.
“The discharge of flares against an aircraft in flight also endangers flight safety and disregards the duty of due regard that China owes under the Convention on International Civil Aviation,” he added.
In response, the PCG aircrew told Chinese forces that their presence on these “illegally reclaimed features,” Subi and Panganiban Reefs, is a violation of international law, and that the MDA flight is a routine and legitimate operation.
The aircrew also recorded a considerable number of Chinese Maritime Militia vessels sheltered inside the lagoons of both features, the PCG said.
“No personnel were observed on the decks of these vessels or on the reclaimed facilities, and no vehicular movement was monitored anywhere on the illegally reclaimed artificial islands,” said Gavan.
Despite the said events, Gavan said the PCG will maintain MDA flights over the West Philippine Sea undeterred and will continue to document and expose China's aggression and violations of international law.
In 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague ruled in favor of the Philippines in its case against China, declaring that Beijing's sweeping claims over the South China Sea based on its so-called “nine-dash line,” covering at least 90 percent of the West Philippine Sea, have no legal basis under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
The tribunal also affirmed the Philippines' sovereign rights within its exclusive economic zone in the West Philippine Sea.
Under the ruling, Panganiban Reef was declared a low-tide elevation forming part of the exclusive economic zone and continental shelf of the Philippines. / TPM