MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A Chinese coast guard ship used a powerful water cannon on Sunday then rammed and slightly damaged an anchored Philippine government vessel off an island inhabited by Filipinos in the disputed South China Sea, said the Philippine coast guard.
There were no injuries among Filipino crewmen of the BRP Datu Pagbuaya, part of the fisheries fleet that provides support to Filipino fishermen. The Chinese coast guard targeted Pagbuaya off the Philippines-occupied Thitu island in the latest flare-up of the long-simmering territorial disputes involving Manila, Beijing and four other governments.
China did not immediately issue any reaction but has repeatedly restated its sovereignty and control over virtually the entire South China Sea, a major trade route, despite a 2016 arbitration ruling that invalidated its historic claims. That ruling has been rejected by China but supported by the United States and its Western and Asian allies.
Pagbuaya and two other Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources vessels were anchored in the territorial waters off Thitu, called Pag-asa by the Philippines, when Chinese coast guard and suspected militia ships suddenly approached and staged “dangerous and provocative maneuvers,” the Philippine coast guard spokesperson Commodore Jay Tarriela said in a statement. He added that such aggression would not prompt Manila to “surrender a square inch of our territory to any foreign power.”
A Chinese coast guard ship with bow number 21559 “fired its water cannon directly at the BRP Datu Pagbuaya, hitting the vessel,” then rammed the stern of the Philippine fisheries vessel three minutes later, causing “minor structural damage but no injuries to the crew.”
Video issued by the Philippine coast guard shows a Chinese coast guard ship firing a water cannon, hitting the vessel and its two Philippine flags. The Filipino-manned ship is seen moving away from the Chinese coast guard ship.
“Despite these bullying tactics and aggressive actions, the Philippine coast guard and the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources remain resolute,” Tarriela said. “We will not be intimidated or driven away.”
“The harassment we faced today only strengthens our resolve,” Philippine coast guard commandant Admiral Ronnie Gil Gavan said. “Filipino fisherfolk depend on these waters and neither water cannons nor ramming will deter us from fulfilling our commitment to Pres. Ferdinand Marcos to not surrender a square inch of our territory to any foreign power.”
Thitu is the largest of nine islands, islets and reefs inhabited by Philippine forces and also has a fishing community in the Spratlys archipelago, the most fiercely disputed region of the South China Sea, where China turned seven barren reefs into island bases protected by a missile system. Three of the artificial islands have runways, including Subi, which lies just more than 20 kilometers (12 miles) from Thitu, which China also claims.
The latest territorial faceoff in the South China Sea adds to domestic emergencies being dealt with by the Marcos administration, including recent earthquakes, which left more than 80 people dead in the central and southern Philippines and back-to-back typhoons that devastated the same regions.
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