MANILA -- The Philippine Navy said that the three People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy vessels earlier monitored to have entered Philippine waters are now about to exit the country’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) via the Basilan Channel.

As of 7:30 a.m. on Tuesday, the Chinese vessels were located 120 nautical miles south of Basilan.

The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) started tracking the Chinese vessels on Saturday, February 1.

One of the ships—a Jiangkai-class guided missile frigate—came from Bajo de Masinloc or Scarborough Shoal and proceeded east of Mindoro, where it was joined by two other PLA Navy vessels—a Renhai-class guided missile cruiser and “a vessel resembling a Fuchi-class replenishment oiler.”

The vessels were monitored 26 nautical miles southeast of Cuyo Island in Palawan on Sunday, February 2.

“The convoy of these ships moving at a speed of 6 knots was located approximately 26 NM SE of Cuyo Island heading southward,” AFP spokesperson Colonel Francel Margareth Padilla said in a press briefing at Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City on Tuesday.

The PLA Navy ships passed through the Sulu Sea and exited through the Basilan Channel.

Philippine Navy spokesperson for the West Philippine Sea Rear Admiral Roy Vincent Trinidad said the AFP kept a tight watch on the Chinese vessels as they passed through Philippine archipelagic waters.

“They were tracked by FF-17, PS-36 and four other Navy ships, one PH Navy aircraft and two Philippine Air Force aircraft,” Trinidad said.

“This entailed the participation of the Northern Luzon Command, Western Command, Central Command and Western Mindanao Command. Our capability to be able to track, to monitor and to hand over to the succeeding operational commands is a capability that the AFP has already today,” he added.

Trinidad explained that the PLA Navy vessels exercised archipelagic sea lanes passage, noting that their track is a “generally accepted and utilized tracks of merchant vessels traversing north to south” of the country.

“They are different, almost similar in freedom of navigation and innocent passage but ships passing under this mode [archipelagic sea lanes passage] could travel in normal mode, meaning, they could be in formation,” Trinidad said.

“Yung pagdaan ng tatlong barko ng PLA Navy is authorized under UN. They are using archipelagic sea lanes passage,” he continued.

But the official pointed out that the Chinese ships still committed violations as their transit through archipelagic waters was not expeditious.

“When passing through archipelagic waters under archipelagic sea lanes passage, ships will have to travel continuously and in the fastest possible speed or the most expeditious speed. Meaning to say, normal speed without stopping, without doing anything that would endanger the coastal state. For this particular case, we monitored them to be traveling at times 30 knots, 40 knots. There were times they slowed down to 6 or 5 knots. It is not expeditious. They could have traveled expeditiously,” Trinidad said.

“They were challenged all the way. They replied but not in accordance to standard procedures. Standard procedure is that you would identify yourself, you would state where you came from, where you're heading to. The only reply given was that they are exercising freedom of navigation and innocent passage,” he added.

The AFP said that the presence of the PLA Navy vessels in our waters is not a cause for alarm.

“There is no cause for alarm as we are prepared to respond effectively to any development. We remain committed to safeguarding the nation’s territorial waters, maintaining peace and stability in the region and upholding national sovereignty,” Padilla said.

“First and foremost, the Sulu Sea is part of our archipelagic sea lanes that were submitted. The proposed ASL, this will still have to go through a process at the international maritime organization to be approved… Yung kanilang pagdaan hindi nakakaalarma sapagkat parati namang may dumadaan doon. Ang importante, bawat may dumadaan na warship, anumang bansa ay binabantayan po ng Pilipinas,” Trinidad added.

The Navy official said the Chinese warships may be heading to Indonesia to participate in the Komodo Exercise.

He added, the AFP has documented the incident and will be submitting a report to the  appropriate government agency for appropriate action.