Marcos on Ayungin incident: 'Deliberate, Illegal action by Chinese forces'

President Ferdinand ''Bongbong'' Marcos Jr. said Thursday that while the latest Ayungin incident was not an armed attack, it was a "deliberate and illegal action" done by Chinese forces.

“It’s not armed, walang pumutok. Hindi tayo tinutukan ng baril but it was a deliberate action to stop our people. But in the process of that, kinuhanan tayo they boarded Philippine vessel and took the equipment from the Philippine vessel,” Marcos told reporters. 

(It's not an armed attack, no shots were fired and none was pointed at us, but it's a deliberate action to stop our people. But in the process of that, they boarded a Philippine vessel and took the equipment)

“Although there were no arms involved, nonetheless it was still a deliberate action and it is still essentially an illegal action that was taken by the Chinese forces,” he added.

Marcos added that the country needs to "do more" than protest China's actions in the West Philippine Sea. 

"We have already made a similar number of demarche, so we have to do more than just that. Kasi papatawag natin 'yung ambassador, sasabihin natin ito 'yung position natin, hindi natin gusto 'yung nangyari, and that’s it. But we have to do more than that, so we are doing just that,'' said Marcos. 

(We will call the ambassador, we will say this is our position, we don't like what happened, and then that's it.)

The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) reported that a service member of the Philippine Navy suffered a “severe injury” from a collision between a Chinese ship and a local vessel performing a regular rotation and resupply (RORE) mission in the Ayungin Shoal.

The June 17 incident has been denounced by the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), the Pentagon, and other nations.

Despite a Filipino sailor losing his thumb, Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin said the incident was not an armed attack, but a misunderstanding or accident. 

However, Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. said that what transpired was an aggressive and illegal use of force by the Chinese forces as it was a ''deliberate act of the Chinese officialdom to prevent us from completing our mission.'' 

Asked about the conflicting statements, Marcos explained that they were initially still gathering information when the first comment was made. 

''Because noong una, tinitingnan pa lang natin 'yung data. Eh baka nagkamali lang. Pero mula noong napunta ako sa WESCOM at nakausap ko si Admiral Torres pati na 'yung mga seaman, sinabi ko ano ba talaga 'yung nangyari? Maliwanag hindi misunderstanding. Talagang pinuntahan tayo para harangin ang ating sundalo,'' he said.

(At first, we were still looking at the data. Maybe they're mistaken. But when I went to WESCOM and I spoke to Admiral Torres and the seaman, I asked what really happened. It's clear that it's not a misunderstanding. They really went to our troops to block our soldiers.)

The vessel was conducting a RORE mission to the BRP Sierra Madre which has been at the Ayungin Shoal since 1999. The ship manned by more than a dozen Marines and sailors has become a symbol of Philippine sovereignty in the offshore territory.

The Ayungin Shoal, which China calls Ren’ai Reef, is located 105 nautical miles west of Palawan and is within the country’s 200-mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and is part of its continental shelf.

China claims almost the entire South China Sea, a conduit for more than $3 trillion of annual ship-borne commerce, including parts claimed by the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei.

The Philippine government sued China before the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague in 2013. The Court ruled in favor of the Philippines in July 2016 when it junked China's nine-dash claim over the South China Sea.

Beijing, however, does not recognize the ruling. 

—with reports from Reuters/ VAL, GMA Integrated News