Philippines Urges China to Remove Shoal Platform, Warns Against Artificial Island

Manila released images and a timeline showing a small occupied platform, buoys, and other objects inside Scarborough Shoal.

Philippine Coast Guard spokesperson Jay Tarriela documents Chinese-installed structures at Bajo de Masinloc (Scarborough Shoal), including a movable floating platform, three new buoys atop earlier ones from October 2025, an unidentified spherical object, and two antennas, at a press briefing in the Philippines on June 10, 2026. Courtesy of Philippine Coast Guard

Manila has urged Beijing to remove a movable floating platform and related structures from Bajo de Masinloc, also known as Scarborough Shoal, after Philippine agencies publicly documented an occupied platform, new buoys, and other objects inside the contested South China Sea feature.

At a June 10 press briefing, Philippine Coast Guard spokesperson Commodore Jay Tarriela presented a monitoring timeline showing what he described as a movable floating platform, three newly installed floating buoys, two earlier buoys placed last October, an unidentified floating object, and antenna structures inside or near the shoal.