PH to ‘do more’ vs Chinese ‘illegal actions’ – Marcos

This frame grab from handout video taken on June 17, 2024 and released by the Armed Forces of the Philippines Public Affairs Office on June 19 shows China coast guard boats (L) approaching Philippine boats (C) during an incident off Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea. The Philippine military said on June 19 the Chinese coast guard rammed and boarded Filipino navy boats in a violent confrontation in the South China Sea this week in which a Filipino sailor lost a thumb. China defended its actions, with its foreign ministry saying on Wednesday that “no direct measures” were taken against Filipino personnel. AFP Photo

President Marcos said the Philippines must “do more” than protest China’s “deliberate, illegal action” against a resupply mission to Ayungin (Second Thomas) Shoal on June 17 that wounded a Philippine Navy sailor.

In an interview with reporters at the Manila Hotel on Thursday, the President said he would summon Chinese Ambassador Huang Xilian to explain the assault against the most recent resupply mission to the BRP Sierra Madre, a military outpost at Ayungin in the West Philippine Sea.

As of May, the Marcos administration lodged 158 diplomatic protests against China over its aggression and incursions into the country’s exclusive economic zone.

On Wednesday, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said it sent a note verbale to Beijing over the June 17 confrontation between the China Coast Guard and the Philippine Navy at Ayungin.

“We have over a hundred protests. We have already made a similar number of demarche, so we have to do more than just that. We summon the ambassador, we state our position that we did not like what happened, and that’s it. But we have to do more than that, so we are doing just that,” he said, without elaborating.

‘No shots fired’

It was the first time that the President referred to the Chinese attack as an “intentional, high-speed ramming” of the Navy’s resupply boats by Chinese forces, which led to a Filipino sailor losing a finger due to the impact.

“It’s not armed. No shots were fired, no guns were pointed at us. But it was a deliberate action to stop our people, and in the process, they boarded a Philippine vessel and took the equipment from the Philippine vessel,” he said.

READ: China’s actions in West Philippine Sea inconsistent with Marcos-Xi policy – DFA

Mr. Marcos stressed that “although there were no arms involved, nonetheless it was still a deliberate action and it was essentially an illegal action taken by the Chinese forces.”

Last week, Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin said the incident was “not an armed attack” but a possible “misunderstanding or accident.”

On Sunday, Mr. Marcos visited the Navy personnel at the Western Command (Wescom) in Palawan, where he praised the troops for defending the country’s waters and stressed that the Philippines was “not in the business of instigating war” and will always settle disputes peacefully.

Award

The Chief Executive also awarded the Navy personnel, especially SN1 Jeffrey Facundo who lost his right thumb in the attack.

Following the President’s visit, Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. said the encounter was “not a misunderstanding or an accident,” but a “deliberate act of the Chinese officialdom to prevent us from completing our mission.”

Asked to explain the differences in the statements made by two of his Cabinet officials, the President said the government was “still looking at the data” surrounding the June 17 incident.

“Maybe it was just a mistake. But when I went to the Wescom and talked to Rear Adm. Alfonso Torres Jr. and the seamen, I asked, what really happened? It was clear that it was not a misunderstanding. They really went to us to block our soldiers,” Mr. Marcos said.

He added that the DFA was in constant contact with Huang regarding the row over the West Philippine Sea.

“I think we’ve made our position very clear. We have made our objections to some of the actions that were undertaken by the maritime forces of the People’s Liberation Army,” the President said.

PH, US commitment

“We have made our objections very clear not only to the ambassador but also to Beijing. So it will really depend on how formal we want to make this complaint,” he added.

Despite a 2016 arbitral ruling that upheld Manila’s sovereign rights to its exclusive economic zone and junked Beijing’s nine-dash line, China continues to claim nearly the entire South China Sea.

After the June 17 attack against Filipino troops at Ayungin, the Philippines and the United States made a commitment to “invest” more in the “rotational force posture” of American forces in the Philippines under the 2014 Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (Edca), a Pentagon press statement said on Wednesday.

Armed Forces of the Philippines spokesperson Col. Francel Margareth Padilla told the Inquirer that rotational force posture “entails the temporary deployment” of US troops to the Philippines for training, exercises and “other cooperative activities, rather than establishing a permanent presence.”

READ: Pirates of the South China Sea

Edca allows American troops to be rotated for extended stays in the country and allows the United States to build and operate facilities inside Philippine bases for US and Philippine use.

In a phone conversation on Wednesday, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin III assured Teodoro of Washington’s continued support for Manila in defending its sovereign rights, including “the importance of preserving the rights of all nations to fly, sail and operate—safely and responsibly—wherever international law allows.”

Reaffirmation

He renewed Washington’s “ironclad” commitment to defend Manila following the “dangerous actions” by China against last week’s delivery of supplies for troops on the Sierra Madre.

The Philippines and the United States have a Mutual Defense Treaty, a 1951 agreement which commits Manila and Washington to come to each other’s defense following an armed attack on either country.

“Both officials also reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening the US-Philippine alliance in support of their shared vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific, including through cooperation with like-minded partners and bilateral initiatives to strengthen information-sharing, enhance the capability of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, and invest in US rotational force posture under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement,” Pentagon Press Secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said.

Edca sites

The Philippines has opened nine sites for Edca use, four of them identified in April last year—Camilo Osias Naval Base in Sta. Ana town and Lal-lo Airport in Lal-lo town in Cagayan province; Camp Melchor dela Cruz in Gamu, Isabela province; and Balabac, the southernmost island in Palawan province.

The other Edca sites are at Basa Air Base in Pampanga, Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija, Lumbia Air Base in Cagayan de Oro, Antonio Bautista Air Base in Palawan, and Mactan Benito Ebuen Air Base in Cebu.

In April, the US government asked its Congress for an $128-million funding in its 2025 budget for additional projects for 36 projects inside Edca sites in the country.

The United States has so far allocated $109 million for previous Edca-related projects.

In April this year, President Marcos told reporters that there was no plan to add additional Edca sites in the country. —WITH A REPORT FROM NESTOR CORRALES