Philippines needs to 'do more' than protest China's actions in South China Sea, Marcos says
A frame grab from a handout video taken on Jun 17, 2024, showing China coast guard boats (left) approaching Philippine boats during an incident off Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea. (Image: Armed Forces of the Philippines Public Affairs Office via AFP)
MANILA: The Philippines needs to do more than protest China's "illegal action" against its navy during a routine resupply mission in the South China Sea last week, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said on Thursday (Jun 27), without elaborating.
A Philippine sailor was injured on Jun 17 after what the Southeast Asian nation's military called "intentional-high speed ramming" by the Chinese Coast Guard, an assertion China has disputed, saying the actions were lawful.
"We have filed over a hundred protests, we have already made a similar number of demarche," Marcos told reporters in Manila.
"We have to do more than just that," he said, without providing details.
No shots were fired in the incident, so the Chinese action could not be considered an armed attack, Marcos added, calling it a "deliberate action" to stop the resupply of Philippine troops stationed at the disputed Second Thomas Shoal.
China's embassy in Manila did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the remarks.
The United States, which has condemned China's actions, reaffirmed its commitment to the Philippines in a telephone call between Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and his Philippine counterpart on Wednesday.
The countries' national security advisers also spoke Wednesday about China's "dangerous and escalatory actions" around the shoal, the White House said.
US national security adviser Jake Sullivan noted the US-Philippines mutual defense pact extends to "armed attacks on Philippine armed forces, public vessels, or aircraft - to include those of its Coast Guard - anywhere in the South China Sea," the White House said in a statement on Thursday.
The South China Sea, vital to global trade, has become a major flashpoint in the testy relationship between China and the United States.
The United States is bound by a seven-decade-old mutual defence treaty to defend the Philippines against an armed attack on its aircraft, or public vessels, in the busy waterway.
"It needs to be emphasised that the Ren'ai Reef issue is not the United States' business," Wu Qian, a spokesperson of the Chinese defence ministry, told a press briefing, using China's name for the Second Thomas Shoal.
"It is extremely dangerous and irresponsible for the United States to instigate and support the Philippines' infringement and provocation," Wu added, dismissing its treaty with the United States as a useless threat.
The Philippines has not asked the United States for support in resupplying its troops, its Washington ambassador said on Wednesday, adding that the United States was providing only "visuals" to aid his nation.
Ambassador Jose Manuel Romualdez said the Philippines had sought a meeting with Chinese officials to lower tensions, not resolve territorial claims, and hoped it would occur "maybe early next month".
Romualdez said that if the Philippines was not able to resupply its troops, it would amount to "killing our soldiers" through starvation and thirst.
"I don't think China wants to have a major conflict. And definitely we do not want to have one. And so, that's a good starting point," he said.
China claims almost the entire South China Sea, including parts claimed by the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei.
An international tribunal dismissed China's expansive claims in 2016, a ruling that Beijing rejects.
