AFP denies Filipino soldiers pointed guns at Chinese Coast Guard
The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) denied allegations that Filipino soldiers onboard a grounded Navy ship in Ayungin Shoal pointed their guns at the China Coast Guard (CCG) who illegally intercepted their resupply mission through an airdrop operation last month.
"We are denying that any of our soldiers pointed deliberately their guns to any of the Chinese in the RHIBS (rigid hulled inflatable boats), but we will not deny the fact that they were armed because the BRP Sierra Madre is a commissioned Philippine Navy Ship and therefore it is authorized to have weapons," AFP chief Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr. in a press conference in Camp Aguinaldo on Tuesday.
"We are authorized to put weapons on board. Both crew served weapons and individual weapons of our soldiers. We have the right because of the concept of self-defense," he added.
Brawner stressed that the CCG "pose a danger, a threat" as they came as close as 10 meters from the grounded Philippine Navy vessel in Ayungin Shoal.
"In this case because of that intent of the Chinese Coast Guard to get our supplies, they came very, very close to the BRP Sierra Madre and this pose, from the point of view of our soldiers this pose a danger, a threat because they were very close. That is why there were videos. There were images of our soldiers carrying their guns but again I'd like to emphasize they did not point their guns to the Chinese. We have rules of engagement that we follow and our soldiers know that,"
Brawner said the Chinese onboard two rigid hull inflatable boats intercepted the resupply mission for the troops in BRP Sierra Madre last May 19.
"We decided to airdrop our supplies so we did four sorties or four rounds of resupply. We were able to recover three of them, unfortunately one of the packages was intercepted by the Chinese. It was the second airdrop where the Chinese came in," he said.
"When the second package resupply package was dropped they attempted or they went to the area to recover it despite the fact that our boats were already there. So they competed with in getting the package and the thing was they opened the packages and when they saw that it was only foodstuff they threw it back into the water," he explained.
Brawner admitted that most of the supplies in the package that was intercepted by the Chinese have sank after it was thrown back to the sea.
"Other supplies were damaged like the rice, it got wet. The supplies that were able to recover are items that are in plastic, that were floating on the water like Rebisco crackers. These were some of them but most of the supplies sank," he said.
Brawner said the AFP reported the incident to the Department of National Defense (DND) and the Department of Foreign Affairs for appropriate action against the illegal interception of supplies by the China Coast Guard.
"Definitely this is illegal, this action of getting our, confiscating our supplies is illegal because it should not be done in the international order, you are not supposed to confiscate the supplies of another country even in war," he said.
"We have reported this already to our Department of National Defense, we have provide the information to the Department of Foreign Affairs so we have done our part, it's up to DFA now whether they are going to file a protest for this action, illegal action that was done by the Chinese Coast Guard," he added. Robina Asido/DMS
