(UPDATE) THE Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) summoned a senior Chinese envoy on Thursday to protest a water cannon incident that damaged two Philippine vessels during a patrol in the South China Sea.
A coast guard vessel and another government boat were damaged in the April 30 incident near the disputed Bajo de Masinloc (Scarborough Shoal), the DFA said.
Manila and Beijing have a long history of territorial disputes in the South China Sea, and the neighbors have been involved in several maritime incidents in recent months as they assert their rival claims in the strategic waterway.
The latest, near the China-controlled Scarborough Shoal, occurred during a mission to resupply Filipino fishermen.
Zhou Zhiyong, the number two official at the Chinese embassy, was summoned by Manila over "the harassment, ramming, swarming, shadowing and blocking, dangerous maneuvers, use of water cannons, and other aggressive actions of China Coast Guard and Chinese Maritime Militia vessels," the DFA statement said.
"China's aggressive actions, particularly its water cannon use, caused damage" to the Philippines' vessels, the ministry added, demanding that the Chinese boats immediately leave the shoal and its vicinity.
The Philippines said the pressure in Tuesday's water cannon incident was far more powerful than anything previously used, and that it tore or bent metal sections and equipment on the Philippine vessels.
Thursday's diplomatic protest was the 20th lodged by Manila this year, and 153rd since President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. came to power in mid-2022, the DFA said.
The Chinese Embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
China's coast guard had previously said it "expelled" the two Philippine ships from its waters near Huangyan Island, the Chinese name for Scarborough Shoal.
The shoal has been a flashpoint between the two countries since China seized it from the Philippines in 2012.
China claims almost the entire South China Sea, brushing off rival claims from other countries, including the Philippines, and an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis.
The triangular chain of reefs and rocks that make up Scarborough Shoal lies 240 kilometers west of the Philippines' main island of Luzon and nearly 900 kilometers from Hainan, the nearest major Chinese land mass.
Since seizing the shoal, Beijing has deployed its coast guard and other vessels that Manila says harass Philippine ships and prevent its fisherfolk from accessing the rich lagoon.
The latest incident came as the Philippines and the United States held a major annual military exercise that has infuriated Beijing.
South Korea, through its embassy in Manila, joined other allies of the Philippines in expressing its concern over the "recent dangerous maneuvers and use of water cannons against the Philippine vessels around the Scarborough (Panatag) Shoal."
Rear Admiral Armand Balilo, Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) spokesman, and Cmdr. Arnaldo Lim inspect the damage on the BRP Bagacay at Pier 13 in Manila South Harbor on Thursday, May 2, 2024, after it was water cannoned by the China Coast Guard in Bajo de Masinloc on Tuesday, April 30. Lim said the cost of the damage to the ship, including the port railings, LED screen display, and the steel canopy at the back, amounted to P2 million. Reports said that when BRP Bagacay was about 1,000 yards east-southeast of Bajo de Masinloc, two CCG vessels trained their jet stream water cannons on the PCG vessel that was on a supply mission to fishermen in the area. PHOTO BY RENE H. DILAN Rear Admiral Armand Balilo, Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) spokesman, and Cmdr. Arnaldo Lim inspect the damage on the BRP Bagacay at Pier 13 in Manila South Harbor on Thursday, May 2, 2024, after it was water cannoned by the China Coast Guard in Bajo de Masinloc on Tuesday, April 30. Lim said the cost of the damage to the ship, including the port railings, LED screen display, and the steel canopy at the back, amounted to P2 million. Reports said that when BRP Bagacay was about 1,000 yards east-southeast of Bajo de Masinloc, two CCG vessels trained their jet stream water cannons on the PCG vessel that was on a supply mission to fishermen in the area. PHOTO BY RENE H. DILAN Rear Admiral Armand Balilo, Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) spokesman, and Cmdr. Arnaldo Lim inspect the damage on the BRP Bagacay at Pier 13 in Manila South Harbor on Thursday, May 2, 2024, after it was water cannoned by the China Coast Guard in Bajo de Masinloc on Tuesday, April 30. Lim said the cost of the damage to the ship, including the port railings, LED screen display, and the steel canopy at the back, amounted to P2 million. Reports said that when BRP Bagacay was about 1,000 yards east-southeast of Bajo de Masinloc, two CCG vessels trained their jet stream water cannons on the PCG vessel that was on a supply mission to fishermen in the area. PHOTO BY RENE H. DILAN Rear Admiral Armand Balilo, Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) spokesman, and Cmdr. Arnaldo Lim inspect the damage on the BRP Bagacay at Pier 13 in Manila South Harbor on Thursday, May 2, 2024, after it was water cannoned by the China Coast Guard in Bajo de Masinloc on Tuesday, April 30. Lim said the cost of the damage to the ship, including the port railings, LED screen display, and the steel canopy at the back, amounted to P2 million. Reports said that when BRP Bagacay was about 1,000 yards east-southeast of Bajo de Masinloc, two CCG vessels trained their jet stream water cannons on the PCG vessel that was on a supply mission to fishermen in the area. PHOTO BY RENE H. DILAN Rear Admiral Armand Balilo, Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) spokesman, and Cmdr. Arnaldo Lim inspect the damage on the BRP Bagacay at Pier 13 in Manila South Harbor on Thursday, May 2, 2024, after it was water cannoned by the China Coast Guard in Bajo de Masinloc on Tuesday, April 30. Lim said the cost of the damage to the ship, including the port railings, LED screen display, and the steel canopy at the back, amounted to P2 million. Reports said that when BRP Bagacay was about 1,000 yards east-southeast of Bajo de Masinloc, two CCG vessels trained their jet stream water cannons on the PCG vessel that was on a supply mission to fishermen in the area. PHOTO BY RENE H. DILAN
"We reiterate the importance of upholding peace, stability, safety and rules-based maritime order in the South China Sea, a critical sea lane of communications for all countries that are using it," the embassy said on Facebook.
The embassies of Australia, Canada, Germany, Japan, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States in the Philippines turned to social media platform X to express concern over the dangerous actions by Chinese ships against the Philippine Coast Guard and the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources vessels near Scarborough Shoal.
They reiterated their call for respect for the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and adherence to the 2016 Arbitral Award, which invalidated China's expansive claim in the South China Sea that encroached on the Philippines' exclusive economic zone (EEZ).
The National Task Force for the West Philippine Sea (WPS) said the latest demonstrations of China's "illegal and irresponsible behavior highlight their egregious disregard for the Philippines' lawful exercise of its rights and entitlements in our own EEZ."
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