CHICKENPIEThird time this year. PCG bulletin. “Please clear the area.”
China launched another rocket on July 30. The debris — from the Yinli-1 launch out of Taiyuan, Shanxi — is projected to fall in drop zones 83 nautical miles from Dalupiri, 88 from Babuyan, 104 from Burgos, Ilocos Norte. All of that is inside the Philippine Exclusive Economic Zone. The zone where, by definition, we have exclusive rights.
The Philippine Space Agency put out the warning. The Coast Guard echoed it. Fishermen, mariners, aircraft — please avoid the drop zone until further notice.
This is the system working. We warn our own people to leave our own waters so Chinese hardware can land safely.
Yinli-1 is a commercial satellite launch. That’s what makes it funny. Not a missile test, not something you’d classify as strategic. Just routine business. They launch things now the way other countries ship containers. And when the container falls apart over your EEZ, the protocol is: you send a bulletin.
The drop zone isn’t international waters. It’s ours. Established by the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea — 200 nautical miles of exclusive rights for every coastal state. We even have the 2016 arbitral tribunal ruling in the back pocket, in case anyone needed reminding.
Nobody forgot. They just don’t care.
The real satire isn’t the rocket. It’s the rhythm. The routine is so practiced it barely makes the front page anymore. China launches. PhilSA computes the debris field. PCG sends out the maritime bulletin. Fishermen who were already not allowed near Bajo de Masinloc get one more reason to stay away. The debris falls. It floats. Maybe it washes ashore. PhilSA kindly warns the public not to touch it — it might have rocket fuel residue.
That’s the arrangement now.
You’d think winning a court case would mean something. Ten years of diplomacy, water cannon footage, formal protest notes, and open letters to China Daily. And maybe it did. Now we get advance notice before the debris hits.
Progress.
The PCG bulletin was professional, efficient, and completely unironic. It did exactly what it was supposed to do. The fishermen moved. The debris fell. The rocket made it to orbit.
Everybody played their part.
