MANILA: A South China Sea confrontation this week, in which the Chinese coast guard personnel brandished weapons and rammed Philippine naval vessels, does not trigger Manila’s mutual defence pact with the United States, a spokesperson for President Ferdinand Marcos said on Friday (Jun 21).
“We are not yet ready to consider this as an armed attack,” executive secretary Lucas Bersamin told reporters when asked if Manila would ask Washington to honour the 1951 treaty.
The pact requires both parties to come to the other’s defence in case of an “armed attack” against vessels, aircraft, military and coast guard anywhere in the Pacific theatre, which Washington says includes the South China Sea.
Monday’s clash saw Chinese coast guard sailors brandishing knives, an axe and other weapons as they stopped a Philippine navy attempt to resupply a Filipino garrison on a derelict warship, seizing guns and damaging other equipment.
A Filipino sailor lost a thumb in the clash, in which the Chinese coast guard confiscated or destroyed Philippine equipment including guns, according to the Philippine military.
Beijing insisted its coast guard behaved in a “professional and restrained” way and blamed Manila for the confrontation, alleging the Philipines had been trying “to sneak in building materials, but also tried to smuggle in military equipment”.
