Defense chief: PH won’t announce next resupply missions to Ayungin

PALACE BRIEFING Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. (left) and National Security Adviser Eduardo Año on Monday face reporters in Malacañang to brief them about President Marcos’ visit to the military’s Western Command in Palawan on Sunday. —Marianne Bermudez

MANILA, Philippines — From saying that last week’s recent rotation and resupply (Rore) mission to Ayungin (Second Thomas) Shoal was “probably a misunderstanding or accident,” the Philippine government now describes China’s actions toward Filipino personnel in that incident as “deliberate.”

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. also rejected an earlier proposal by the National Maritime Council (NMC) to announce the next scheduled Rore missions to Ayungin, Defense Secretary Gilberto “Gibo” Teodoro Jr. said at a Palace briefing on Monday.

READ: PH not yet seeking foreign help on Ayungin tensions

According to the defense chief, the President made that decision after his visit on Sunday to the Western Command of the Armed Forces of the Philippines in Puerto Princesa City. There he talked with troops who took part in the June 17 Rore mission that saw China’s most violent actions so far toward Filipino personnel.

“After our visit to our troops in Palawan yesterday, where the President personally talked to the troops involved in the Rore, we have now come to a conclusion that it was not a misunderstanding or an accident,” Teodoro said, paraphrasing Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin’s assessment last Friday of the June 17 mission.

“We see the latest incident in Ayungin not as a misunderstanding or an accident. It is a deliberate act of the Chinese officialdom to prevent us from completing our mission,” he said.

READ: China’s actions in Ayungin Shoal not an armed attack – Palace

A member of the Philippine Navy’s elite Naval Special Operations Group, SN1 Jeffrey Facundo, lost his right thumb as China Coast Guard (CCG) personnel rammed their rubber vessels against the Philippine Navy’s boats during that confrontation.

Chinese personnel also boarded and towed the boats of the Filipino personnel and confiscated their guns. They also wielded their knives and other bladed weapons to slash the rubber boats, as sirens blared and strobe lights were used. They then blocked for several hours the Philippine Coast Guard’s evacuation of the wounded sailor.

Bare hands

The Filipino sailors only fought with their bare hands.

Marcos lauded the troops in that incident for “exercising the greatest restraint amid intense provocation,” even as he stressed that the government continues to “stand firm” in defending its territories.

Bersamin, at a press conference on Friday following a meeting by the NMC, described the incident as “probably a misunderstanding or accident,” when asked by reporters whether the government considered it an armed attack, through which the Philippines’ Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT) with the United States could be invoked.

Presidential Assistant on Maritime Concerns Andres Centino, a former AFP chief of staff, said at the same press conference that there was no plan to invoke the treaty.

In explaining Marcos’ rejection of the NMC’s proposal to announce the next Rore missions ahead of schedule, Teodoro said: “We will continue our rotation and resupply missions on a regular basis, the welfare of our troops in the BRP Sierra Madre being a matter of utmost importance. The President has reiterated that we will not publish schedules of any Rore [mission].”

Bersamin, the NMC chair, had said at his press conference: “It’s just a normal, routinary matter. So in the best interest of all parties, I think, it was a wise decision for the President to accept our recommendation to publicize the scheduled activities without giving up anything. There’s nothing wrong about that.”

The National Security Council (NSC) on Monday also denounced what it called the “illegal and unlawful use of force” by China to overrun and disrupt the Philippines’ Rore mission to Ayungin.

At the “Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon” press briefing, Assistant Director General and NSC spokesperson Jonathan Malaya said, “We [at NSC] are really very alarmed and concerned over what happened at Ayungin Shoal during our latest resupply mission. And it’s very clear that this is an illegal act and unlawful use of force.”

Not ‘act of war’

But “as to the question if is it an act of war, it doesn’t look like [one],” Malaya said.

“So what we want in this situation is for the two countries to have a calm dialogue and find a diplomatic solution to this impasse,” he said.

But if the CCG tries to overrun a Navy vessel, such as the BRP Sierra Madre, the situation changes altogether, Malaya said.

“It’s a red line that cannot be crossed, because it has a different repercussion and our troops stationed at BRP Sierra Madre, I’m sure, would not allow the invasion or overrun by agents of foreign power,” he said.

“If armed attack happens on BRP Sierra Madre, we have to decide—the government has to decide—if it is an act that warrants the engagement of collective self-defense arrangement under the MDT,” he added.

“So, we must determine if the use of force is sufficient and wide scale to be constituted as an act of war and we at the [NSC] cannot answer that at the moment. That has to be a decision of the President and of the government as a whole, because that already means foreign involvement,” Malaya said.