Stuck Chinese boat rejects help, scorns Philippine Navy
Published on: Sunday, September 10, 2023
By: ABS CBN
The incident happened while the Philippines was delivering fresh supplies to the BRP Sierra Madre, a commissioned vessel grounded on Ayungin Shoal.
MANILA: The Philippine Navy offered to help a Chinese rubber boat in distress in Ayungin Shoal only to be scorned and blamed for the incident, Col. Medel Aguilar, military spokesperson, said on Saturday.
One of China’s Rigid Hull Inflatable Boats was entangled in a fishing line while it was tailing Philippine vessels heading to Ayungin Shoal to re-supply troops there, Aguilar said in a news forum in Quezon City.
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“Troops offered assistance to help China, but China refused.. and another boat came to their rescue,” he said.
While the Chinese boat’s refusal to accept aid from Philippine forces was expected what surprised troops was Beijing’s radio call that blamed Filipinos for the incident, he said.
“They still have the guts to challenge our radio message: ‘Philippine Coast Guard because of your manoeuvres, the Chinese Coast Guard vessel came into problem,’” he said.
The AFP spokesperson rejected the radio message, calling it “another narrative that they will tell their people.”
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“After this incident, they will come up with their own narrative to tell their people about what happened,” Aguilar said.
“We don’t want the truth to be drowned by what happened,” he said.
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The incident happened on September 7, while the Philippines was delivering fresh supplies to the BRP Sierra Madre, a commissioned vessel grounded on Ayungin Shoal.
Several Chinese Coast Guard ships and maritime militia vessels tried to block two Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) ships to stop the re-supply mission, said Commodore Jay Tarriela, spokesperson of the PCG.
“It is very important for the government… for us to be more transparent on what is happening in the West Philippine Sea,” he said.
“We face the media, we give them the true story. The media will play a very important role in curtailing this fake news that spreads every time they release these narratives.”
China, which has been illegally claiming almost the entire South China Sea, has been pushing the narrative that the Philippines is acting on behalf of the US when it comes to the West Philippine Sea issue.
PH rejects narrative that South China Sea issue only between US, China.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. disputed these claims in several speeches at the recently concluded Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit in Jakarta, Indonesia.
“The Philippines firmly rejects misleading narratives that frame the disputes in the South China Sea solely through the lens of strategic competition between two powerful countries,” Marcos Jr. said.
“This not only denies us of our independence and our agency, but it also disregards our own legitimate interests,” he said.
Marcos Jr. also urged his regional peers and other world leaders to “never allow the international peaceful order to be subjected to the forces of might, applied for a hegemonic ambition.
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