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The spokesperson of the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) on West Philippine Sea issues said Tuesday that President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr.’s stance on the maritime dispute has not changed and the government is not downplaying China’s harassment against the Philippine Navy in an encounter last week at Ayungin Shoal.

In an interview with dzBB, Commodore Jay Tarriela said that Marcos was only showing his “commitment to peace” but there were “problems with the messaging” when Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin called the incident a “misunderstanding or an accident”.

“The stand of the government, particularly President Bongbong Marcos, has always been the same since the day he promised to our fellow Filipinos that we will not surrender a square to any foreign power,” Tarriela said.

He added that Bersamin had not been given enough time in the press conference last Friday to expand on what he meant by his statement.

“This is the reason why there were a lot of speculations that the stand of the President has changed…I would like to believe that the Executive Secretary has understood the magnitude of the illegal, inhuman, and barbaric actions of the China Coast Guard against the members of the Philippine Navy,” Tarriela said.

“So we also believe that this is not an intention to downplay the incident, as if we have folded or have become afraid. The speech of our President on Sunday remains to be the same. This reflects his policy from before until now, wherein he said we don’t want to provoke or escalate the tensions. And as much as possible we are committed to peace. The commitment to peace has always been mentioned by the President. He even mentioned it in his speech in the Shangri-La Dialogue that the Philippines intends to have peace in the region,” he added.

He also cited that Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro, Jr. and National Security Adviser Eduardo Ano clarified that they consider the actions of the China Coast Guard which led to the injury of seven Navy personnel as a “deliberate act”.

“When we say deliberate attack, this will have a wrong connotation for our Filipinos. This was a deliberate act. That means it was not a misunderstanding or an accident. This was deliberate on their part because there was an illegal use of force to block the resupply mission of the Philippine Navy,” he said over dzBB.

Tarriela said that Filipino troops will be using “different approaches” and have contingencies in place for the next resupply mission to Ayungin Shoal to prevent a similar incident from happening. Jaspearl Tan/DMS