The Philippine Coast Guard has inaugurated its first dedicated command center on Thitu Island within the disputed Spratly Islands. This new headquarters covers a vast area of 68,000 sq km, signaling a strengthened military presence in the South China Sea.

The Philippine Coast Guard unveiled on Thursday its first dedicated command centre in the Spratly island chain, a flashpoint in the disputed South China Sea that has been the site of repeated confrontations with Chinese vessels. The headquarters of a newly established coastguard district, formerly overseen from neighbouring Palawan, will cover an area of about 68,000 sq km (26,000 sq miles). A journalist travelling to the new command centre on Thitu Island, known as Pagasa in the Philippines,...