The Philippines has already filed a diplomatic protest over the “blocking maneuvers” of a Chinese Coast Guard vessel against the military-contracted resupply boat off the waters of Ayungin shoal in the West Philippine Sea last 22 October.
In a press conference on Monday, Department of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Ma. Teresita Daza said the Philippines is firm in continuing its mandate to protect and uphold the country’s legal maritime entitlement in the WPS.
“We’re making full use of diplomatic processes and are exercising all possible actions available to us—that includes summoning the Chinese ambassador which we did this morning,” she said.
However, Daza said Huang was out of town and was instead represented by his deputy chief of mission.
Daza underscored that the matter was “urgent and important” thus, the DFA decided to meet China’s DCM in the Philippines and convey the country’s position over the latest incident in the Ayungin shoal.
Beijing’s DCM met with DFA Assistant Secretary Aileen Mendiola-Rau, but Daza did not provide further details about the meeting.
“Ayungin Shoal is part of our exclusive economic zone and continental shelf and we have sovereign rights and jurisdiction over it, therefore as we did in the past we intend to clearly convey our position that we have every right under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea to carry out our legitimate activities in our maritime zones and that we do not accept any form of interference,” Daza stressed.
The DFA emphasized that the Philippine vessels are undertaking a routine and regular humanitarian mission for military personnel aboard the BRP Sierra Madre, a Philippine Navy warship grounded in the Ayungin shoal.
Daza said this mission is consistent with “Philippines rights under the International law.”
“It’s rather difficult to imagine how these activities could be deemed as threatening or provocative to China. Not only China’s actions endanger lives at sea. They’re also illegal, dangerous, provocative, and deplorable,” she stressed.
Daza said these China’s actions had undermined trust, confidence, and respect that should be underpinned in the Beijing-Manila bilateral relations and “put into serious doubt” the sincerity of the Chinese side to uphold the understanding between Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Chinese President Xi Jinping.”
Philippine Coast Guard spokesperson for the WPS Commodore Jay Tarriela said China has been violating the collision regulation of the seas.
“We can document and support the diplomatic actions of DFA. Those rules that were violated by China on collision regulation—all of these will still be submitted to the DFA as to whatever diplomatic actions,” he said.
The Philippines has already filed a diplomatic protest over the latest incident that caused a collision between the CCG and the Philippine vessel.
As of 23 October, the DFA filed a total of 465 protests since January 2020. Of the figure, 122 were lodged under the Marcos administration.