MANILA, Philippines — Rear Admiral Jay Tarriela, spokesperson of the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) for the West Philippine Sea, responded to the Chinese Embassy’s allegation that it was the Filipino servicemen from the BRP Sierra Madre who started the violent confrontation between the China Coast Guard (CCG) and the Philippine Navy (PN) on Monday, July 20.
“If there is any party here that provokes and escalates tension, it is only the unruly and barbaric China Coast Guard personnel who clearly do not understand Unclos (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea,” he said, addressing Deputy Spokesperson of the Chinese Embassy Guo Wei.
Guo said in a series of posts on Facebook that the Philippines “can’t start a fight and then play the victim,” pointing to statements from the Armed Forces of the Philippines, which said that the attack by the CCG wounded a PN sailor, who was hit with a wooden baton on the head.
READ: PH slams China after ‘unlawful’ Ayungin incident injures 1
“The Philippine side initiated the provocation, and its personnel struck first, using paddles, long poles and other objects to maliciously attack Chinese law enforcement officers,” Guo claimed in the said Facebook posts that contained videos of the incident that occurred in Ayungin (Second Thomas) Shoal, within the exclusive economic zone of the Philippines.
The AFP already said that a CCG rigid hull inflatable boat with eight personnel from vessel CCGV 21560 illegally approached within close range of the BRP Sierra Madre, a World War II-era warship that was intentionally grounded to serve as a Filipino outpost in the West Philippine Sea.
It said the boat circled while CCG personnel took photos and videos, prompting AFP personnel on two rubber boats “to calmly and con-confrontationally drive it away.”
READ: AFP: China Coast Guard assaults Philippine Navy officer in Ayungin
For Tarriela, “why else would they be this close to BRP Sierra Madre—a Philippine ship, sitting well within the Philippine exclusive economic zone, and over 600 nautical miles from Hainan [Island]?”
“The provocateur is not the one staying home in his own waters. It is the one who sailed hundreds of miles to swing a baton at him! We have always been the victim and you remained to be the bully,” he said. /cb
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