Phl Did Not Waver in Defending WPS

Despite the aggression from Chinese forces, Philippine authorities remained firm in defending the country's sovereign rights over the West Philippine Sea this year.

- By GHIO ONG

Encounters between the China Coast Guard (CCG) and the People's Liberation Army-Navy (PLAN), and the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG), Philippine Navy and the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) often ended in hostile incidents.

CCG patrol ships blasted their water cannons at PCG patrol vessels, encircled and blocked Philippine ships and speedboats and even crashed into Philippine vessels in some instances.

In late August, one of PCG’s two 97-meter patrol vessels BRP Teresa Magbanua was hit at least three times by CCG ship with bow number 5205, leaving holes in parts of the ship, while guarding Escoda Shoal, which authorities alleged to have been a subject of China’s “small-scale island reclamation” with crushed corals already dumped in the area.

Harassment by Chinese officers towards Philippine personnel also led to injuries. In mid-June when the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) carried out a humanitarian mission to troops assigned at the BRP Sierra Madre in Ayungin Shoal, Seaman First Class Jeffrey Facundo lost a finger – which was reattached in early November – after a “high-speed ramming incident” between rigid hull inflatable boats of Chinese and Philippine forces, which PCG spokesman for West Philippine Sea concerns Commodore Jay Tarriela called an “accident.”