SUBIC, Zambales — Fishermen here still manage to make a living near Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal by cutting short their fishing trips after China implemented new rules that allowed its coast guard to detain for up to 60 days without trial any foreigner who “illegally” crosses its claimed borders in the South China Sea (SCS).

In an interview with the Inquirer on Sunday, Nido Moralde, 63, who arrived here on Friday with 11 other fishermen after a week near the shoal in the West Philippine Sea (WPS), said the new rules made their situation harder at sea but it would not stop them from going to their traditional fishing ground.

Moralde, a resident of Barangay Calapandayan, said they needed to cut short their trip despite not having enough catch in order to avoid encountering the China Coast Guard (CCG). The bad weather had also hampered their efforts to fish.

Before the new rules were announced by China, the fishing team would usually spend over a week in the shoal, allowing each fisherman to earn P30,000 to P50,000 per fishing trip when they could still enter the lagoon that would serve as their shelter during inclement weather. But with the shortened trips, fishers could only hope for P10,000 to P15,000 per trip.

Moralde said they would enter the shoal in complete darkness, turning off all lights, to elude the Chinese coast guard that would usually chase them, day or night, every time they were anywhere near Scarborough Shoal.

Moralde said they could only turn on their lights if they passed 30 nautical miles from the shoal.

“It was hard then but it’s harder now,” he said in Tagalog.

The shoal, which has bountiful fish stocks and a lagoon that provides a haven for vessels during storms, is located within the country’s 370-kilometer (200 nautical miles) exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the SCS. The Philippines refers to the waters within its EEZ as the WPS.

For generations, it became a traditional fishing ground for many fishermen in this province but China, which has a sweeping claim of nearly the entire SCS, has been harassing fishermen and other vessels attempting to enter the lagoon.

In 2016, the Netherlands-based arbitral tribunal adjudicating the Philippines’ case against China in the SCS ruled that China’s claim of historic rights to resources within its so-called nine-dash line had no basis in law as it upheld the Philippines’ sovereign rights and jurisdiction in its EEZ. China refused to recognize the ruling.

It would take fishermen like Moralde at least 24 hours to reach their fishing ground near the shoal.

They were defying the annual China fishing ban in the SCS, that included large swatches of WPS, from May 1 to Aug. 16; and the threat of CCG to detain them.

Last February, National Security Adviser Eduardo Año said that starting that month, vessels from the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) and the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources would take turns patrolling the waters around the shoal amid growing Chinese aggression.

Recently, the Armed Forces of the Philippines also encouraged fishermen to keep fishing in WPS, as authorities will be there to support them.

However, according to many fishermen who regularly venture into the shoal despite their fears, there was no presence of the PCG or any government troops there, until now when they were threatened to be detained by the CCG.

“That’s just words, it’s not true, we don’t see them there,” said Moralde.

Many fishermen in this town also complained that the government’s promised financial aid had only gone to commercial fishers.