MANILA (Reuters) – The Philippines will proceed with resupply missions to troops on an atoll in a disputed a part of the South China Sea regardless of Chinese language coast guard vessels intentionally disrupting a mission final week, Protection Secretary Gilberto Teodoro mentioned on Monday.
“It was not a misunderstanding or an accident,” Teodoro informed a press convention on the presidential palace.
“We’re not downplaying the incident. It was an aggressive and unlawful use of pressure.”
A Philippine sailor suffered severe damage after what its navy described as “intentional-high pace ramming” by the Chinese language Coast Guard, aiming to disrupt a resupply mission for troops stationed on the Second Thomas Shoal on June 17.
China’s international ministry has disputed the Philippines’ statements, with a spokesperson saying final Thursday that the required measures taken by the coast guard had been lawful, skilled and past reproach.
President Ferdinand Marcos mentioned on Sunday that the Philippines was not within the enterprise of instigating wars and would all the time goal to settle disputes peacefully.
(Reporting by Neil Jerome Morales and Karen Lema; Modifying by Ed Davies and John Mair)
