MANILA, Philippines, 21 Jun: The Philippines said Friday it has no plan to invoke its mutual defense treaty with the United States after the Chinese coast guard reportedly rammed, boarded and used machetes and axes to damage two Philippine navy boats in a chaotic faceoff that injured Filipino navy personnel at a disputed shoal in the South China Sea.
\nPresident Ferdinand Marcos Jr.\u2019s key advisers made the remarks in a televised news conference, squelching speculation that Manila might consider invoking the 1951 treaty to secure U.S. military help after Monday\u2019s confrontation at Second Thomas Shoal, where the Chinese coast guard also seized Philippine navy rifles. The Philippine military chief condemned the incident, likening it to an act of piracy, and demanded that China return the rifles and pay for the damage.
\nThe territorial disputes, which involve China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan, have long been seen as an Asian flashpoint that could pit the U.S. against China if the high seas confrontations escalate into an armed conflict. Washington has repeatedly warned that it\u2019s obligated to help defend the Philippines, its oldest treaty ally in Asia, if Filipino forces, ships and aircraft come under an armed attack, including in the South China Sea.
\n\u201cThat has not been considered in our discussions,\u201d presidential assistant on maritime concerns Andres Centino said when asked if the Philippines was considering activating its treaty with the U.S.
\nExecutive Secretary Lucas Bersamin said the government did not consider the Chinese coast guard confrontation an armed attack as stated in the mutual defense treaty with the U.S.
\n\u201cThis was probably a misunderstanding or an accident. We\u2019re not yet ready to classify this as an armed attack,\u201d Bersamin said. \u201cWe saw bolo, axe, nothing beyond that.\u201d
\nIn what critics may see as a concession to China, Bersamin said Marcos approved a recommendation for the government to publicize the schedule when navy personnel are deployed to transport food, water and other supplies to the Philippines\u2019 territorial outpost in the shoal. A small Philippine navy contingent aboard a long-grounded dilapidated warship, the BRP Sierra Madre, has occupied Second Thomas Shoal since 1999 but China later deployed coast guard, navy and suspected militia ships in a territorial standoff that has become increasingly volatile.
\nDuring the hourslong confrontation at the shoal on Monday, Chinese personnel on board more than eight motorboats reportedly rammed and then boarded the two Philippine navy inflatable boats to prevent Filipino navy personnel from transferring food and other supplies, including firearms, to the Philippine ship outpost.
\nAfter a scuffle and repeated collisions, the Chinese reportedly seized the boats and damaged them with machetes, knives and hammers. They also seized eight M4 rifles which were packed in cases and other supplies and wounded a number of Filipino navy personnel, including one who lost his right thumb, two Philippine security officials told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
\nThe Philippine navy said only one person was injured but the two officials said at least five were treated on a Philippine coast guard ship that sailed close to the shoal to help rescue the navy personnel. The two officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren\u2019t authorized to discuss the sensitive conflict publicly.
\nChina blamed the Philippines for the confrontation, saying the Filipino personnel \u201ctrespassed\u201d into the shoal in defiance of its warnings. The Philippines demanded that Chinese coast guard, navy and other ships immediately leave the shoal, which it says is inside its internationally recognized exclusive economic zone, and said it would not yield to Chinese aggression. AP<\/p>\n
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MANILA, Philippines, 21 Jun: The Philippines said Friday it has no plan to invoke its mutual defense treaty with the United States after the Chinese coast guard reportedly rammed, boarded and used machetes and axes to damage two Philippine navy boats in a chaotic faceoff that injured Filipino navy personnel at a disputed shoal in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-242686","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242686\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}