Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 23) – The Philippines filed a fresh diplomatic protest against China on Monday, a day after its ships collided with Filipino vessels on a resupply mission to the BRP Sierra Madre on Ayungin Shoal, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) announced.
READ: Chinese ships collide with PH vessels on resupply mission to Ayungin – NTF-WPS
DFA spokesperson Teresita Daza said Chinese Embassy’s Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM) Zhou Zhiyong was summoned by the department to convey the country’s protest. Chinese Ambassador Huang Xilian was initially summoned but he was out of town.
Ayungin Shoal is part of the Philippines’ Exclusive Economic Zone and continental shelf and the country has \”every right under the UNCLOS (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea) to carry out legitimate activities in our maritime zone and that we do not accept any form of interference,\” Daza added.
Marcos meets with security officials
President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. called for a special command conference of the national security and defense clusters on Monday morning to discuss the recent incident and to give his guidance to maritime and security agencies. Defense Gilbert Teodoro said in a briefing.
“We are taking this incident seriously at the highest level of government. The use by China of brute force behind disingenuous façades necessitates this course of action,” he added.
SCS code of conduct talks
The collision came just as the eastern giant is hosting the second round of discussions on the establishment of the Code of Conduct (COC) in the South China Sea (SCS).
\”I think it is really very ironic that on this very day is the start of the second round of discussions on the proposed COC which is hosted by China. Whereas just yesterday, they are in blatant disregard of international law,\” Teodoro said.
The defense chief questioned the sincerity of China in hosting the talks aimed at preventing major conflicts at sea by establishing the rules of behavior of claimaints in the contested waters.
\”What kind of good faith can we expect from them?,\” Teodoro asked.
The territorial dispute in the South China Sea involving China, the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei and Taiwan has long been seen as a flashpoint and a source of tension in the rivaly between the Washington and Beijing.
The DFA said as of Oct. 23, the country has filed a total of 465 protests against China since January 2020. Out of these, 122 were lodged during the Marcos administration, of which 55 were made in 2023.
Chinese Embassy’s response
The Chinese Embassy for its part said Zhou \”conveyed strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition of the Chinese side to the Philippine side over its vessels’ intruding the waters of Ren’ai Jiao on October 22,” Ren’ai Jiao is the Chinese name for Ayungin Shoal, which is known internationally as the Second Thomas Shoal.
Zhou reiterated that Ren’ai Jiao is part of China’s territory, the Chinese Embassy statement said. That is contrary to a 2016 ruling by an international arbitral tribunal that the shoal is part of the Philippines exclusive economic zone and continental shelf. The ruling also nullified China’s sweeping claims in the South China Sea.
The embassy said Zhou also urged the Philippines to honor its promise to remove the BRP Sierra Madre, World War II-era ship deliberately grounded to serve as an outpost in the Ayungin Shoal.
The Chinese claim of a promise was earlier refuted by former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and the children of former President Erap Estrada. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. himself rescinded any such deal, if one even existed.
Future actions amid growing tensions
As a result of the collision on Sunday, only one of the two civilian vessels contracted by the military was able to successfully deliver essential supplies to troops stationed on the BRP Sierra Madre.
National Security Council Assistant Director General Jonathan Malaya said the National Task Force on the West Philippine Sea was considering all possible actions in the event of future harassment by China, “[b]ut those future actions will depend on instructions from higher ups.”.
Reporters asked if the incident would affect or even strengthen another court case against China and its aggression in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.
“The matter about filing another case is still being studied by the government, but of course, all incidents like this will actually bolster the case that it’s not the Philippines that is the aggressor, but China,” Daza responded.
The media then asked if China’s latest harassment could lead to the invocation of the Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT) with the United States, DFA spokesperson Teresita Daza said it would not as the incident was not an armed attack.
