Marcos nixes retaliation by water cannon
PRESIDENT Marcos on Monday rejected the use of force against the Chinese ships, which blasted Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) vessels and other maritine with their water cannons.
“We have no intention of attacking anyone with water cannons or any other such offensive...i would have to call them weapon because they are already causing damage,” the President told reporters partly in Filipino in an interview after the celebration of the Government-owned or -Controlled Corporations (GOCCS) Day in Pasay City.
He said such counter-attack in will only worsen the tension in the West Philippine Sea (WPS), the part of the South China Sea within the country’s Exclusive Economic Zone.
“We will not follow the Chinese Coast Guard and the Chinese vessels down that road because it simply...it is not the mission of our Navy, our Coast Guard to start or to increase tensions,” Marcos said.
“Their mission is precisely the opposite, it’s to lower tensions,” he added.
Rather than using force, Marcos said his administration will use diplomatic solutions to address the situation.
“All we do is whenever there is a water cannon incident we send a démarche, or a letter to China and the other stakeholders,” Marcos said.
In March, China Coast Guard ships started using water cannons against
Philippine vessels to deter their movement on the West Philippine Sea.
The latest incident happened on April 30, 2024 when two large Chinese vessels fired water cannons against a PCG patrol ship that was escorting a Bureau of Fisheries and Acquatic Resources resupply vessel near the Panatag Shoal damaging both seacraft.
The President made the statement amid calls for the Philippines’s retaliation following a recent incident in the Bajo de Masinloc (Scarborough Shoal), where Chinese Coast Guard vessels blasted the Philippine Coast Guard’s BRP Bagacay and Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources’s BRP Datu Bankaw with water cannons.
Meanwhile, the BRP Andres Bonifacio one of the Navy’s three offshore patrol vessels, resumed service after an intensive upgrade of its communications and sensor equipment.
“Following the successful completion of its extensive upgrades, Philippine Navy patrol ship BRP Andres Bonifacio is back in action, resuming its naval operations with upgraded capability within the Naval Forces West and AFP [Armed Forces of the Philippines] Western Command area of operations,” the ship’s Facebook post said on Monday.
The West Philippine Sea is within the area of responsibility of Naval Forces West and the military’s Wescom.
Earlier, the Philippine Navy said some 1,000 civilian boats should be deployed in the resource-rich region to match the number of Chinese maritime militia vessels in the area.
However, the PCG said that fishermen and their boats should not be considered force multipliers.
Barbers hits China lies
THE senior congressman from Surigao del Norte on Monday condemned China’s “persistent deception and propaganda” regarding the WPS issue, asserting that Beijing’s actions are aimed at diverting attention from their covert activities, including espionage and encroachments on Philippine territory.
Rep. Robert Ace Barbers, who chairs the House of Representatives’ Committee on Dangerous Drugs, in a statement said he “stands firmly with Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro” in exposing what he calls the “charade orchestrated by a Chinese Embassy official.”
The Chinese diplomatic functionary earlier claimed the existence of a “new model” or gentlemen’s agreement to prevent conflict in the WPS, a claim vehemently refuted by Teodoro.
“The claim made by a Chinese Embassy official, I believe, is an outright and calculated lie and forms part of their propaganda intended or designed to veer away and/or deviate the Filipinos’ attention from their creeping invasion and maybe other evil designs in the Philippines,” he said.
Barbers highlighted the increasing presence of Chinese in the Philippines engaged in various suspicious activities, including espionage, money laundering, and the illegal drugas trade, often under the guise of legitimate endeavors.
“China, at first, claimed they had a verbal ‘gentlemen’s agreement’ with former President Rodrigo Duterte on the Ayungin Shoal in WPS. Now, under the present dispensation, the Chinese Embassy claims there exists a ‘new model’ of a gentlemen’s agreement confirmed by the AFP Wescom, the DND chief, and the National Security Adviser. Secretary Teodoro has debunked all those claims,” he said.
“China is banking on its fabricated or non-existent verbal agreements to justify their presence, incursions in the WPS, bullying and water-cannoning of our Coast Guard and BFAR ships inside the Philippine territory. China has been lying, and the Filipinos should always adopt extreme caution in whatever they say and do on the WPS issue,” he added.
On the real possibility that China may intrude and invade the “unguarded” areas in the country’s eastern border, Barbers said there is a strong and justifiable need to deploy naval forces or conduct military exercises in said seaboard to cover the Pacific Ocean.
“Considering the aggressiveness, intrusions, and bullying of Filipino troops in the WPS, China’s complete disregard of our diplomatic protests on the WPS issue, disregard of the UNCLOS decision, and adoption of fabricated or false narratives such as the gentleman’s agreement or ‘new model’ purportedly arrived at between PH and China on the WPS, the country should now adopt a proactive stance on those issues to protect our territorial waters,” he said.
Barbers and his brother, Surigao del Norte Governor Robert Lyndon Barbers, expressed support for government initiatives to establish a naval station or Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) site in the province. Such measures, they believe, will bolster security and protect against threats posed by drug trafficking, criminal syndicates, and foreign encroachment.