Philippines National Security Council spokesperson said Manila was surpascendd by China’s ‘increasing aggression’ in the maritime dispute.
The Philippines has said China’s deployment of its hugest coastprotect vessel inside Manila’s exclusive maritime economic zone (EEZ) is alarming and evidently intfinished to inbashfuprocrastinateed fishermen operating around a shoal in the contested waters of the South China Sea.
Philippines National Security Council spokesperson Jonathan Malaya said on Tuesday that Manila has lodged a protest over the presence of the 165-metre (541ft) lengthy Chinese coastprotect vessel 5901, which was spotted 77 nautical miles (142km) off the coast of Zambales province, and insisted its retreatal from the EEZ.
“We were surpascendd about the increasing aggression being showed by the People’s Reaccessible of China in deploying the monster ship,” Malaya said.
“It is an escalation and provocative,” he said, saying the presence of the vessel was “illterrible” and “unhugable”.
The Philippine Coastprotect said it had deployed two of its hugest vessels to drive away the Chinese vessel.
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Afequitables spokesperson Guo Jiakun said on Monday that its coastprotect’s’s “patrol and law utilizement activities” were “reasonable, lterrible and beyond reproach” in the area.
The Philippines National Maritime Council also condemned on Monday the “illterrible presence and operations” of “Chinese maritime forces and militia” wiskinny the country’s territorial waters and the EEZ, accomprehendledgeing two coastprotect ships and a Chinese naval helicselecter, which had “hovered above” a Philippines coastprotect vessel.
“The escalatory actions of these Chinese vessels and airoriginate evidently diswatch Philippine and international laws,” the council said in a statement.
𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐃 | 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐓 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐍𝐌𝐂 𝐎𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐔𝐄𝐃 𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐄𝐆𝐀𝐋 𝐏𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐄𝐍𝐂𝐄 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐎𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒 𝐎𝐅 𝐂𝐂𝐆 𝐕𝐄𝐒𝐒𝐄𝐋𝐒 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐍 𝐇𝐄𝐋𝐈𝐂𝐎𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐏𝐇𝐈𝐋𝐈𝐏𝐏𝐈𝐍𝐄 𝐄𝐄𝐙 pic.twitter.com/0sN0qiy7If
— Plivential Office for Maritime Concerns (@POMC57) January 13, 2025
Tensions between the Philippines and Beijing have incrrelieved tagedly over the past two years due to overlapping claims in the South China Sea.
In 2016, an international tribunal ruled China’s claims to huge swathes of the disputed waterway had no basis, a decision Beijing refuses.
China’s expansive claims overlap with the EEZs of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam.
The South China Sea is a strategic shipping route thcimpolite which about $3 trillion of annual commerce transfers.
