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A National Security Council official denied the accusations of China that the Philippines are stirring up trouble in the South China Sea saying that the removal of floating barriers "are well within" the country's sovereign rights.

"They said we are stirring up trouble, our reaction is that, we are not, we are well within our rights in what we have done in removing that barrier," National Security Council (NSC) Assistant Director General and National Task Force - West Philippine Sea spokesman Jonathan Malaya said in a radio interview Tuesday.

After the removal of the floating barrier installed by the Chinese Coast Guard in Scarborough Shoal on Monday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin warned "the Philippines not to provoke or stir up trouble" in the South China Sea.

Malaya said they think China will not install a new barrier in Scarborough Shoal and expressed hope that China will understand that their floating barrier was cut and removed by the PCG to protect the rights of the Filipino fishermen.

"Well it looks like they will not install a new barrier because when they monitor that we cut their barrier and eventually it disappears. So we can surmise that China removed the barrier after they learned that we cut it," he said.

"Moving forward hopefully the situation will not get worse, we hope that China will understand that we are also doing this to protect the rights of our fishermen," he added. Robina Asido/DMS