Filipino fishermen in the South China Sea have been plying their trade without being harassed by the Chinese coast guard for a month, officials said, in what could be an early sign of easing tensions under incoming President Rodrigo Duterte, who will be sworn in on June 30.
Authorities haven't received any complaints from fishermen for weeks about Chinese interfering with their catch near the disputed Scarborough Shoal, said the director of the Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, Asis Perez, on Tuesday. "That should be the norm. Our fishermen shouldn't be harassed and hosed by China, because that area is ours," he said.
Filipino fishermen have often played cat and mouse with Chinese coast guards stationed at Scarborough, a chain of reefs and rocks about 150 miles (240 kilometers) from the Philippine province of Zambales that China seized from the Philippines in 2012. China has become more assertive in recent years in pressing its claims to more than 80 percent of the South China Sea, a rich fishing ground and one of the world's busiest shipping lanes, which is also an artery for China's energy supplies from the Middle East.