Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 7) – The Philippines will continue its resupply mission in the West Philippine Sea despite China’s attempts to block the operation and its use of water cannon against Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) vessels, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) said.
“We will continue the resupply mission to ensure the well-being of our marines and sailors and to perform our obligations in the region,” AFP spokesperson Col. Medel Aguilar said in a joint news briefing by the National Task Force on the West Philippine Sea (NTF-WPS) on Monday.
On Saturday, the Chinese Coast Guard (CCG) fired water cannon at PCG vessels while they were escorting civilian boats chartered by the AFP to deliver supplies to the BRP Sierra Madre – a rusting US navy ship which was intentionally grounded in 1999 at the Ayungin Shoal by the Philippine Navy to serve as a military outpost in the contested waters.
READ: Chinese coast guard fired water cannons at PH vessels en route to Ayungin Shoal – PCG
Two civilian boats escorted by one PCG vessel each were chartered to deliver supplies to the outpost.
The Chinese blockade forced one boat and its PCG escort to leave. However, one civilian vessel successfully broke past and successfully delivered supplies to the Sierra Madre, NTF-WPS officials said, meaning only half were delivered.
Beijing on Monday justified its use of water cannon, claiming that four Filipino vessels “broke into the waters adjacent to Renai Reef in the Nansha Islands of China without the approval of the Chinese government.\” It added that it would \”continue to carry out rights protection law enforcement activities in the waters under Chinese jurisdiction.\”
China refers to Ayungin as Renai Reef, and the Spratly Islands as Nansha Islands.
Filipino officials said as Ayungin shoal was within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone, the resupply mission was lawful and called on China to cease its “pervasive and unlawful” actions over the West Philippine Sea.
Manila summoned China’s ambassador and filed a diplomatic protest against Beijing over the water hosing, the 35th protest this year, and the 445th since 2020.
READ: PH summons Chinese ambassador, files diplomatic protest after encounter near Ayungin Shoal
Lawmakers and the international community have likewise condemned China’s continued harassment of Filipino vessels over Philippine waters and its rejection of the 2016 arbitral award under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) that negated Beijing’s sweeping claims over the South China Sea.
The tribunal ruling in 2016 affirmed Philippine sovereign rights in areas of its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and continental shelf which Beijing contests.
