August 12, 2024
MANILA – President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Sunday condemned the Chinese air force’s “dangerous and provocative actions” against a Philippine military plane patrolling over the Scarborough Shoal in the West Philippine Sea (WPS).
According to the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), two China air force aircraft “executed a dangerous maneuver” and “dropped flares in the path of its NC-212i.” The AFP said China’s action endangered the lives of its personnel conducting maritime security operations.
The Presidential Communications Office (PCO) said Marcos stands by the AFP members, specifically the Philippine Air Force (PAF).
“The actions of the People’s Liberation Army – Air Force aircraft were unjustified, illegal and reckless, especially as the PAF aircraft was undertaking a routine maritime security operation in Philippine sovereign airspace,” Marcos said as quoted by PCO.
“We have hardly started to calm the waters, and it is already worrying that there could be instability in our airspace,” he added.
According to Marcos, the Philippines will remain “committed to proper diplomacy and peaceful means of resolving disputes.”
“However, we strongly urge China to demonstrate that it is fully capable of responsible action, both in the seas and in the skies,” he added.
Flashpoint reef
The incident follows a series of increasingly tense confrontations between Manila and Beijing, which claims most of the South China Sea and seized the shoal after a 2012 standoff with the Philippines.
In June, the Philippine military said one of its sailors lost a thumb in a confrontation off Second Thomas Shoal, in another area of the South China Sea, when the Chinese coastguard also confiscated or destroyed Philippine equipment including guns.
Beijing has blamed the escalation on Manila and maintains its actions to protect its claims are legal and proportional.
Following the Second Thomas Shoal clash, the two countries agreed on a “provisional arrangement” for resupplying Filipino troops based on a decrepit warship grounded atop the reef, and also to increase the number of communication lines to resolve disputes in the waterway.
The Chinese air force action on Thursday came a day after China carried out a combat patrol near Scarborough Shoal to test the “strike capabilities” of its troops.
Scarborough Shoal, a triangular chain of reefs and rocks, is 240 kilometers (150 miles) west of the Philippines’ main island of Luzon and nearly 900 kilometers from the nearest major Chinese land mass of Hainan.
Despite last week’s incident, the Philippines said Sunday it will continue to patrol its Exclusive Economic Zone, defined by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea as waters beyond a coastal nation’s territorial seas over which it has sovereign rights to explore and exploit natural resources.
“The Armed Forces of the Philippines reaffirm our determination to conduct regular surveillance operations in line with international law,” military spokesperson Francel Padilla said in an interview over local radio station DZBB.
“We will safeguard our country’s sovereignty and security over our maritime domain,” she added.