The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) denied accusations that a vessel of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) deliberately rammed a Chinese Coast Guard vessel during the conduct of a humanitarian mission in Scarborough Shoal on Tuesday.

"There's no collision that really happened. It was a BFAR vessel on stationary, subjected to a water cannon by two CCG vessels. And the CCG vessel did a sharp turn, enough to at least touch the bow of the BFAR vessel,” said Tarriela.

“So, there was no collision. It was their own, like ‘bump me’ something,” he added.

In an article posted at the website of the Ministry of National Defense of the People's Republic of China, China Coast Guard (CCG) spokesperson Gan Yu claimed that BRP Datu Gumbay Piang with vow number 3014 "ignored multiple warnings from the Chinese side and deliberately rammed into a CCG ship in an unprofessional and dangerous manner."

The spokesperson also stressed that the "Philippine side bears full responsibility for the collision" claiming that its "intentional infringement and provocative actions are malicious in nature".

However, Tarriela explained that the incident was unintentional as it happened while the BFAR vessel was being targeted by the water cannon of two China Coast Guard vessels.

"It was not intentional. It was actually their lies once again hiding their unlawful and bullying activities in Bajo De Masinloc, what really happened here was the two CCG vessels that were harassing BRP Datu (Gumbay) Piang conduct dangerous maneuver which they release to the social media appearing that we rammed their vessel," he said.

"They are claiming that we rammed their vessel while they were firing water cannon on the bridge of BFAR vessel so how can you even expect the BFAR vessel to prevent such unintentional ramming if they did a sharp turn while at the same time firing their water cannon against the back and front part of the BFAR ship," he added.

Tarriela said a report regarding the incident will be submitted to the National Task Force for the West Philippine Sea for appropriate actions.

“As far as the PCG and BFAR are concerned, we're going to submit to the NTF WPS an after-operation report of what had happened,” said Tarriela.

“It's for the cognizant government agencies to take action whether through diplomatic, legal, or even asking them to settle for the damage,” he added. Robina Asido/DMS