By Ruth Abbey Gita-Carlos | Philippine News Agency
President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. on Tuesday summoned Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Jing Quan to Malacañan Palace in Manila, following the China Coast Guard’s (CCG) assault on Philippine Navy (PN) personnel at Ayungin Shoal.
Palace Press Officer and Undersecretary Claire Castro confirmed to reporters that President Marcos Jr. met with Ambassador Jing to discuss the latest maritime incident involving the CCG and PN personnel.
“It concerns national security, but we will give additional information once we are allowed to do,” Usec. Castro said.
The Presidential Communications Office (PCO) also shared photos of Marcos Jr.’s meeting with Jing.
In a Palace press briefing earlier in the day, Castro said the President condemned the CCG’s harassment of PN personnel stationed at the grounded BRP Sierra Madre at Ayungin Shoal on Monday.
A PN member sustained a head injury after being struck with a wooden baton by CCG personnel during a confrontation near Ayungin Shoal in the West Philippine Sea, part of the South China Sea (SCS).
The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) earlier said a CCG rigid hull inflatable boat carrying eight personnel from CCG Vessel 21560 unlawfully approached BRP Sierra Madre at close range.
The CCG personnel “reacted violently and aggressively,” causing injury and damaging the PN rubber boat operating within the area where the country “enjoys sovereign rights under international law,” the AFP said.
The state-run China Daily on July 10 uploaded a video portraying Filipinos as monkeys wearing traditional Filipino national attire and being manipulated by foreign powers before being thrown into the sea and sprayed with a water cannon.
The Philippines has maintained that Ayungin Shoal lies within its exclusive economic zone under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and the 2016 Arbitral Award, which invalidates China’s sweeping claims in the SCS.
China, however, continues to reject the ruling.
