China Coast Guard seizes PH supplies for Ayungin

TIGHT GUARDING A China Coast Guard vessel keeps a close watch on a small Filipino fishing boat in this photo taken earlier this month some 93 kilometers (50 nautical miles) away from Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal in the West Philippine Sea. —Richard A. Reyes

MANILA, Philippines — The China Coast Guard (CCG) has been accused of seizing and dumping overboard food and other supplies meant for Filipino troops stationed at a remote outpost in Ayungin (Second Thomas) Shoal, and allegedly obstructing a medical evacuation of ailing soldiers.

Both incidents took place on May 19, when the Philippine Navy performed an airdrop operation to bring the items to the BRP Sierra Madre, a dilapidated warship grounded in 1999 to protect Manila’s claims to the shoal, according to a ranking military official, who asked not to be named for not having authority to speak to the media.

READ: It’s nearly an act of war if a Filipino dies in West Philippine Sea

In a third incident, on May 24, the CCG used water cannons to drive away a Filipino fishing boat near the shoal, the official said.

The Inquirer source made the allegations hours after Chinese state media claimed that personnel on the Sierra Madre “pointed guns” at the CCG on the same day, May 19.

In a social media post on Sunday, China Central Television said at least two men were seen carrying guns on deck, pointing them in the direction of the CCG.

An accompanying 29-second video appeared to show a masked man momentarily holding up a blurred black object that resembled a rifle.

The Philippine Navy, Philippine Coast Guard and National Security Council, as well as the country’s embassy in Beijing, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The Inquirer source said the CCG deployed four rubber boats during the May 19 paradrop operation of a Philippine Navy aircraft to the Sierra Madre.

The Chinese grabbed some of the provisions, mostly food, and scattered them into the water, making sure they couldn’t be consumed. But some of them took supplies for themselves, the source said.

On the same day, two CCG ships and four rubber boats also harassed a medical evacuation operation meant to provide medical assistance to soldiers who got sick, the source said.

One of the CCG ships directly blasted its water cannon at the outboard motor toward one of the Philippine rubber boats, he added.

The engine guard of the Philippine boat was also damaged after a Chinese rubber boat rammed its rear. A nonmilitary source with knowledge of the operations confirmed the Chinese harassment but his version slightly differed from the first source, saying the Chinese boats had tried to block the “transfer of personnel” between the Philippine Navy boats and a small Philippine Coast Guard watercraft.

Ayungin is a low-tide elevation that lies within the Philippines’ 370-kilometer exclusive economic zone, some 194 km off Palawan province.

The Sierra Madre hosts a small contingent of Filipino troops, requiring regular rotation and resupply missions that have been on the receiving end of Chinese harassment. The last publicly known resupply mission was in March when a Filipino supply vessel was damaged with water cannons fired by the Chinese, causing injuries.

In 2016, an arbitral tribunal in The Hague, the Netherlands, said China’s sweeping claims to most of the South China Sea had no legal basis.

‘A certain country’

During the Shangri-La Dialogue, Asia’s top defense summit, held in Singapore on Friday, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. made a thinly veiled reference to Beijing, denouncing what he called illegal, coercive and aggressive actions in the South China Sea, which were undermining Southeast Asian countries’ vision for “peace, stability and prosperity” in the sea.

Speaking at the Singapore summit, Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun said Beijing was committed to safeguarding its sovereignty and territorial integrity, saying this was “a sacred mission of the Chinese military.”

“The South China Sea has seen overall stability. However, a certain country, emboldened by outside powers, has broken bilateral agreements and its own promises, made provocations and created false scenarios to mislead the public,” Dong said, without naming the Philippines.

“We are very much concerned that such behaviors of pretending to uphold fairness and justice, and blackmailing others under the guise of international law will severely damage international rule of law,” Dong said.

Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr., during his bilateral meeting with New Zealand Defense Minister Judith Anne Collins on the sidelines of the summit, said: “The Philippines is not the one causing the problem over there.”

In Teodoro’s earlier meeting with his American counterpart, Lloyd Austin III, on Saturday, the latter said Filipinos had been facing “dangerous” harassment in the West Philippine Sea.

“And we all share an interest in ensuring that the South China Sea remains open and free,” Austin said.

“We are beyond friends and allies, we are family. What affects you affects us,” Austin told Teodoro. —with a report from Nestor Corrales in Singapore