Gov't not ready to consider China's actions as armed attack
The administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. admitted the government is not yet ready to consider China's aggressive actions toward Filipino troops in a resupply and rotation mission at Ayungin Shoal last Monday as an armed attack.
Neither is the invocation of the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty being discussed yet, a former Army chief said in a press conference late Friday.
But the National Maritime Council recommended to Marcos to publicize rotation or resupply missions "which shall remain routinary and will be scheduled regularly."
Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin said the recent harassment of China in Ayungin Shoal which caused severe injury to a member of the Naval Special Operations Group was just "probably a misunderstanding or an accident."
"We are not yet ready to classify this as an armed attack. I don't know if what we saw (from the video footage) were bolos, axes... nothing beyond that," said Bersamin, a former chief justice.
Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief Gen. Romeo Brawner, Jr. visited the troops in the Western Command in Palawan and saw the status of the morale of our troops.
"He was able to talk with those who were sent to conduct the mission, while the mission did not go as planned. However, we saw the morale of our troops are high and we even made sure that those of our soldiers were recognized and acknowledged for their actions, behavior in handling the incident that happened last Monday," Presidential Assistant on Maritime Concerns Andres Centino said.
The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) said it took 12 hours to retrieve the injured soldiers in a grounded warship at the Ayungin Shoal due to "dangerous maneuvers and harassment" from Chinese ships.
In an interview with reporters in Malacanang last Friday, PCG spokesperson for the West Philippine Sea Commodore Jay Tarriela said the Chinese Coast Guard (CCG) continued to hinder their retrieval operations despite their attempt to coordinate.
"We were also coordinating with CCG informing them that there are injured AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) personnel onboard BFP Sierra Madre, and that we intend to carry out a medical evacuation, but still despite that advisory and radio call on the part of Philippine Coast Guard vessels, we were still subjected to those harassment from the PLA (People's Liberation Army) Navy and Chinese Coast Guard," he said.
Centino said the government still viewed the latest incident in the Ayungin Shoal with concern.
"This is the reason why the National Maritime Council (NMC) convened this afternoon," Centino said.
Bersamin said bringing the incident to a higher international body is also not being considered yet by the government.
"That is not yet in consideration because I think this is a matter that can easily be resolved very soon by us and if China wants to work with us we can work with China," he said.
Centino also confirmed the invocation of the Mutual Defense Treaty is not yet discussed by the government.
"It has not been considered in our discussions," he added.
As part of the government's effort to avoid the repetition of the same incident, Bersamin said the National Maritime Council convened a meeting and came up with a policy recommendation for the consideration of the president.
"We just don't know if the reason for this is that there is no prior knowledge on the part of China that we are resupplying.... so for the best interest of both parties,'' said Bersamin.
''I think it is a wise decision for the president to accept our recommendation to publicize the schedule of the activities without giving up anything. There is nothing wrong with that," he said. Robina Asido/DMS
