Tight Security China Coast Guard vessels keep a close watch on small Philippine fishing boats about 93 kilometers (50 nautical miles) off the Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal in the West Philippine Sea earlier this month. —Richard A. Reyes
MANILA, Philippines — The China Coast Guard (CCG) is accused of seizing and dumping overboard food and other supplies intended for Philippine soldiers stationed at a remote garrison at Ayungin (Second Thomas) Shoal, and impeding medical evacuation of sick soldiers.
Both incidents occurred on May 19, when the Philippine Navy airdropped items onto the BRP Sierra Madre, an ageing warship that ran aground in 1999 to protect Manila’s claims over the shoal, said a senior military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Read: Filipino deaths in West Philippine Sea are almost an act of war
In a third incident on May 24, the coast guard used water cannons to chase away Philippine fishing boats near shallow waters, officials said.
The Inquirer’s sources made the claim hours after Chinese state media reported that Sierra Madre personnel had “pointed their guns at” the China Coast Guard on May 19, the same day the ship was attacked.
At least two men were seen on deck carrying guns and pointing them in the direction of the coast guard, China Central Television said in a social media post on Sunday.
The accompanying 29-second video shows a masked man briefly holding up a blurry black object that resembles a rifle.
The Philippine Navy, Philippine Coast Guard, National Security Council and the Philippine Embassy in Beijing did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
According to Inquirer sources, the CCG deployed four rubber boats during an airborne landing mission by Philippine Navy aircraft into the Sierra Madre mountains on May 19.
The Chinese took some of the supplies, mainly food, and scattered them in the water to prevent them from being eaten, but some Chinese also took the supplies for themselves, the source said.
The same day, two Coast Guard vessels and four rubber boats disrupted a medical evacuation operation aimed at providing medical assistance to sick soldiers, the sources said.
He added that one of the Coast Guard vessels fired a water cannon directly at the outboard motor of one of the Philippine rubber boats.
The Philippine ship’s engine guard was also damaged when a Chinese rubber boat rammed its stern. A non-military source familiar with the operation confirmed the Chinese harassment but gave a slightly different account than the initial source, saying the Chinese vessel was trying to prevent a “personnel transfer” between a Philippine Navy ship and a small Philippine Coast Guard vessel.
Ayungin Island is a low-tide highland located about 194 km from Palawan province within the Philippines’ 370 km exclusive economic zone.
Sierra Madre is home to a small Philippine military contingent that requires regular rotations and resupply missions, which have been harassed by Chinese forces. The last publicly known resupply mission was in March, when a Philippine supply ship was damaged by Chinese water cannon, resulting in injuries.
In 2016, an arbitral tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, ruled that China’s sweeping claims to much of the South China Sea had no legal basis.
“A Certain Country”
Speaking at Asia’s highest-level defense summit, the Shangri-La Dialogue, in Singapore on Friday, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. implicitly criticized Beijing, accusing it of illegal, coercive and aggressive actions in the South China Sea that are undermining the Southeast Asian nation’s vision of “peace, stability and prosperity.”
Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun said at the Singapore summit that Beijing is committed to safeguarding sovereignty and territorial integrity, which he said is the “sacred mission of the Chinese military.”
“The South China Sea is generally stable, but one country, emboldened by external forces, has violated bilateral agreements and its own commitments, engaged in provocations and created false scenarios to mislead its people,” Dong said, without naming the Philippines.
“We are extremely concerned that actions such as using the guise of international law to intimidate others while pretending to uphold fairness and justice will seriously damage the rule of international law,” Dong said.
“The Philippines is not creating problems over there,” Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro said in bilateral talks with New Zealand Defense Minister Judith Ann Collins on the sidelines of the summit.
Teodoro met on Saturday with US Foreign Secretary Lloyd Austin III, who said Filipinos were facing “dangerous” harassment in the West Philippine Sea.
“We all have an interest in ensuring that the South China Sea remains open and free,” Austin said.
“We are more than friends and allies, we are family. What affects you affects us,” Austin told Teodoro. —Reporting from Nestor Corrales in Singapore
