MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. condemns the recent incident at Ayungin (Second Thomas) Shoal, where a Philippine Navy personnel was assaulted by members of the China Coast Guard (CCG), Palace press officer Claire Castro said on Tuesday.
The personnel sustained a head injury after CCG personnel allegedly struck him with a wooden baton within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone and continental shelf on Monday. The incident also damaged one of the Navy’s rubber boats.
READ: AFP: China Coast Guard assaults PH Navy man at Ayungin
“He condemns it. The President condemns these kinds of incidents,” said Palace press officer Claire Castro at a briefing when asked for Marcos’ reaction to the incident.
Despite the latest incident of provocation and aggression by the Chinese side, the Marcos administration will continue to pursue a diplomatic approach in asserting the country’s rights in the disputed waters.
“At this time, the President also needs to study the situation, but any fight for rights should not be pursued through violence. This is not about the size of your territory or the strength of your forces, but about standing for the truth and asserting what your rights are,” Castro said.
The Palace official stopped short of condemning the Chinese embassy’s narrative that the injured personnel ignored repeated warnings and “continued their provocations, deliberately stirred up trouble and maliciously attacked Chinese law enforcement officers with paddles.”
“SFor us, whatever falls within the mandate of our officials and our Filipino personnel is in accordance with our rights and our laws. Whatever their narrative may be, they are free to say that — it is not something within our scope,” she said.
“But what we stand by is our rights and what our officials and Filipino personnel should do in this situation. So, we support the actions being taken by our Filipino officials,” Castro added.
The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), the Department of National Defense (DND), and the National Task Force for West Philippine Sea (NTF-WPS) strongly denounced the attack.
The DFA said any act of violence against Filipino personnel is “unacceptable and will merit the appropriate diplomatic action.”
For the DND, the latest violence committed by CCG adds to “a clear pattern of provocative and hostile behavior, and further contributes to the People’s Republic of China’s deficit of trust and credibility.”
The NTF-WPS, meanwhile, also said that the latest act of aggression against personnel performing their lawful duties “is unacceptable and serves only to heighten tensions and increase the risk of dangerous miscalculation at sea.” /mr
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