The phrase “Atin to,” recently went viral after a video of Filipino fishers chanting “Atin to,” in the presence of 2 Chinese Coast Guard (CCG) vessels. 

CCG vessels within the premises of the West Philippine Sea are not a new story that Filipinos are aware of. However as time went on, the issue of the sea that both the Philippines and China are vying for became more controversial due to the ways that are being done to deal with the situation.  

Last Wednesday, while Filipino civilian-led convoy are sailing towards the Panatag Scarborough Shoal, two China Coast Guard vessels tried to block them.

Panatag Scarborough Shoal in the West Philippines Sea is known as a research-rich area in the Philippine Economic Zone that was seized by China in 2012. 

A CCG ship with the number of 4108 manuevered towards one FB Bing Bing—one of the four commercial vessels by the Akbayan’s “Atin Ito” coalition. Locals refers the fishing boat as “Pangulong” that carries volunteers, fishermen, and journalists. 

According to New Masinloc Fishermen Association president Leonardo Cuaresma–their boat was 24 nautical miles (44 kilometers) away from Panatag Shoal when they got blocked by the CCG vessels. 

They were situated approximately 100 nautical miles (185.2 km) away from Masinloc town in Zambales province, from where the convoy sailed early on Wednesday morning, originally joined by a fifth commercial fishing boat and roughly 100 small outriggers.

The Philippines Coast Guard which were escorting the convoy through the 44-meter BRP Bagacay confirmed the existence of 2 Chinese vessels. 

Filipino netizens later came to X (formerly Twitter) to flood the thread with their thoughts regarding the situation. 

Later on, the tag “West Philippine Sea” went viral on X with more netizens tweeting about the topic. 

Meanwhile, some Filipinos called out TIME for using “South China Sea” instead of “West Philippine Sea.”