Incident came 2 days after PBBM met new Chinese ambassador
Three Filipino fishermen were injured when China Coast Guard vessels sprayed their boats with water cannons and cut their anchor lines near Escoda (Sabina) Shoal in the West Philippine Sea, the Philippine Coast Guard said Saturday.
The fishermen were “targeted with water cannons and dangerous blocking maneuvers,” PCG spokesman Commodore Jay Tarriela said, adding that small Chinese rigid hull inflatable vessels had also “deliberately cut the anchor lines of several (boats).”
“Three fishermen sustained physical injuries, including bruises and open wounds. Two (Filipino fishing boats) also suffered sig-nificant damage from high-pressure water cannon blasts,” he added.
The attack came two days after President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. accepted the credentials of Chinese ambassador to the Philippines Jing Quan.
Mr. Marcos, during the ceremonies at Malacañan Thursday, expressed hopes that the Philippines’ bilateral relations with China will further improve through the efforts of Beijing’s newly-designated ambassador.
Beijing, for its part, said it had taken “necessary control measures” involving about 20 Philippine fishing boats near Sabina Shoal, a fish-rich area about 150 kilometers from the island of Palawan.
In a statement released Saturday, the China Coast Guard said it had taken “necessary control measures against the Philippine vessels … including issuing warnings via loudspeaker and conducting external maneuvering to drive them away.”
Video released by the Philippine side showed water cannon blasts crashing over the small fishing boats.
It was the latest in a series of escalating confrontations between Chinese and Philippine ships in the West Philippine Sea which Beijing claims nearly in its entirety despite an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis.
The Chinese Embassy in Manila did not immediately reply to requests for comment.
In October, the Philippines accused a Chinese ship of deliberately ramming one of its government vessels in the Spratly Islands, where Beijing has sought to assert its sovereignty claims for years.
As this developed, the Department of National Defense has expressed “deep concern” over an incident where China reportedly illuminated a Japan Air Self-Defense Force aircraft with radar.
According to the Japanese Embassy in the Philippines, the first incident occurred between 4:32 p.m. and 4:35 p.m. on Decem-ber 6 when J-15 fighter aircraft launched from the Chinese Navy aircraft carrier “Liaoning” intermittently directed radar at Japa-nese F-15 fighters.
The Japanese aircraft were conducting airspace intrusion countermeasures at the time.
A second incident occurred between 6:37 p.m. and 7:08 p.m. on the same day, involving another J-15 from the Liaoning, which again illuminated a separate JASDF F-15 with radar in the same area.
“China’s latest unsafe and escalatory actions underscore a pattern of reckless behavior that threatens regional stability, under-mines established norms, and threatens states conducting lawful and responsible operations,” the Defense department said in a statement.
“This dangerous act has no place in international airspace and underscores the urgency of upholding the rules-based order that keeps the Indo-Pacific stable,” it added.
The Defense Department said the Philippines “stands with Japan and all like-minded partners who choose transparency, restraint, and adherence to international law over intimidation and provocation.” —With Agence France Presse
