A Facebook page posted an alleged satellite image claiming that the Chinese floating structure spotted within the disputed Bajo de Masinloc has supposedly disappeared. This is not true.
Uploaded on June 13, the post featured a photo showing the “object” purportedly visible on May 27, then vanished later, but no exact date or time was given. A superimposed text stated: “THE OBJECT IS GONE. QUESTIONS REMAIN.”
Part of its caption further alleged:
“The object may be gone, but the questions remain.
Recent satellite imagery drew international attention after showing a suspected floating structure near the entrance of Bajo de Masinloc (Scarborough Shoal) in the West Philippine Sea. Subsequent images reportedly no longer showed the object at its original location, prompting continued monitoring and validation efforts by Philippine authorities.
The disappearance of the reported object may have ended one chapter of the story, but it has opened new questions about its purpose, origin, and what exactly transpired inside the shoal.”
In a June 13 media forum, Rear Admiral Jay Tarriela, Philippine Coast Guard’s spokesperson for the West Philippine Sea, said the “movable floating platform” and the additional buoys and antenna installations remain inside the Bajo de Masinloc.
Tarriela added that the structure has just been repositioned to the northernmost portion of the Bajo de Masinloc, contrary to the disappearance narrative in the spurious FB post.
The inaccurate post emerged three days after Tarriela presented during a June 10 press briefing the detailed timeline regarding the detection of the Chinese floating platform, estimated at roughly six to seven meters long, inside the disputed atoll.
One major flaw in the graphic is its claim that the floating structure became “visible” on May 27. Tarriela said the first indication of this square platform was observed through satellite imagery on May 25 at the shoal’s southeastern entrance. It was later moved into the lagoon on May 31 with the assistance of service boats.
The maritime forces released neither the May 27 photo displayed in the post nor the undated image showing the structure’s supposed disappearance.
Results from three artificial intelligence detection tools indicated that the graphic was likely AI-generated, further suggesting the inauthenticity of the purported satellite imagery.
‘Inconsistent with international law’
A June 11 report by the Global Times, a Chinese state-controlled media, said the structure in Bajo de Masinloc, which Beijing calls Huangyan Dao, is supposedly a “temporary scientific research facility set up there by the South China Sea Institute of Oceanology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences…designed to improve ecological monitoring, research, and forecasting” in the area.
On the part of the Philippine government, Deputy Assistant Secretary Rogelio Villanueva Jr., the Department of Foreign Affairs’ spokesperson for the WPS, earlier said the continued, unauthorized presence of the floating platform is “not only a violation of the sovereignty and jurisdiction of the Philippines, but is also inconsistent with international law.”
Villanueva specifically referred to the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and the July 2016 South China Sea arbitral ruling, which Beijing does not recognize.
In a separate June 11 interview, National Maritime Council spokesperson Alexander Lopez said the platform was being used to “practically steal” maritime data without Philippine authorization.
Citing also the UNCLOS, Lopez stressed that maritime surveys and research activities within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ) are prohibited unless conducted with the express consent of the coastal state.
The DFA has since lodged diplomatic action and urged China to remove the platform from Bajo de Masinloc, maintaining that the country has “indivisible, incontrovertible and longstanding sovereignty” over the maritime feature.
Access to the contested territory, also known as Scarborough or Panatag Shoal, has been under China’s control since a 2012 standoff with the Philippine Navy. It lies 119.65 nautical miles or about 220 kilometers off the coast of Palauig, Zambales and falls well within the country’s EEZ.
The post with untrue claims, published by FB page West Philippine Sea (created on May 6, 2026), so far garnered over 1,000 reactions; 318 comments and 118 shares.
