AFP accuses China air force of 'dangerous' acts in Scarborough Shoal

The Armed Forces of the Philippines said on Saturday it strongly condemns "dangerous and provocative actions" by China's air force at Scarborough Shoal in the West Philippine Sea.

It was the first time the Philippines has complained of dangerous actions by Chinese aircraft, as opposed to navy or coast guard vessels, since President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. took office in 2022.

Two People's Liberation Army Air Force aircraft executed a dangerous maneuver and dropped flares in the path of a NC-212i Philippine Air Force propeller aircraft conducting a routine maritime patrol over the Scarborough Shoal around 9 a.m. Thursday, the AFP said in a statement.

It "endangered the lives of our personnel undertaking maritime security operations recently within Philippine maritime zones," said AFP chief General Romeo Brawner Jr., adding that the Chinese aircraft interfered with lawful flight operations and violated international law on aviation safety.

The pilot and crew "safely returned" to Clark Air Base in Pampanga at 10 a.m. Thursday, Brawner said.

''All personnel on board were unharmed,'' he said.

The AFP said it had already reported the incident to the Department of Foreign Affairs and relevant government agencies.

“We reaffirm our commitment to exercise our rights in accordance with international law, particularly UNCLOS and the Chicago Convention,” Brawner said.

'Illegally intruding'

But for the Southern Theater Command of the Chinese PLA, the Philippine aircraft, "despite repeated warnings from China, insisted on illegally intruding into the airspace of Huangyan Island," disrupting training activities.

China's naval and air forces carried out identification, tracking, warning, and expulsion in accordance with the law, it added.

"The on-site operation was professional, abided by norms, legitimate, and legal," the PLA said, urging the Philippines to stop what it called infringement and provocation.

Prior to this incident, the Chinese military's Southern Theater Command said on Wednesday it had "organized a joint combat patrol in the sea and air space" near the Scarborough Shoal.

The maneuvers tested "the reconnaissance and early warning, rapid mobility, and joint strike capabilities of theater troops," Beijing said.

AFP public affairs office chief Colonel Xerxes Trinidad said they had not monitored any exercise or combat patrols.

Trinidad, however, confirmed the presence of three PLA Navy vessels, namely PLA-Navy WUZHOU (FSG 626) Jiangdao II Class Corvette, PLA-Navy HUANGSHAN (FFG 570) Jiankai II Class Corvette, and PLA-Navy QUJING (FSG 668) Jiangdao II Class Corvette, that tailed the Multilateral Maritime Cooperative Activity involving the armed forces of the Philippines, Australia, Canada, and the United States this week.

Filipino fishermen frequent the Scarborough Shoal, one of two flashpoints in a longstanding maritime rivalry with China. On Wednesday, Beijing organized a combat patrol near the shoal, which Manila calls Bajo de Masinloc and China seized in 2012 and refers to as Huangyan Island.

Scarborough Shoal, a triangular coral reef formation that surrounds a lagoon, is famed for its rich waters and marine resources. It is located 124 nautical miles off Masinloc, Zambales, and is considered within the Philippines’ 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone, based on the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

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

China rejects a 2016 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague that Beijing's expansive claims had no basis under international law.

In May, the Philippines accused Chinese fishermen of destroying the ecological environment in Scarborough with cyanide fishing, harvesting giant clams and other protected marine creatures, as well as scarring coral reefs, which China denied. — Reuters/Jamil Santos/VBL, GMA Integrated News