MANILA – The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) has concrete evidence against China regarding their continued aggression in the West Philippines Sea.
National Task Force for the West Philippine Sea spokesperson Commodore Jay Tarriela said they have documented all the illegal movements of China and ready to present it if needed.
“With regard to the transparency efforts of the Philippine Coast Guard, we are documenting the aggression and the illegal presence of the Chinese government in the West Philippine Sea,” Tarriela said.
“We are not the legal authority as to how the Department of Justice or the Office of the Solicitor General will make use of our report. We only document the actual incidents that happened and we have tremendous trust in our legal luminaries,” he added.
According to Tarriela, China’s strategies can no longer be considered just gray zone tactics, or below military armed conflict.
“Ang tawag na natin dito illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive action of the Chinese government. We just call them as outright illegal activities,” Tarriela said.
“It has been very obvious. Ang ginagawa nila ay violations of the international law, coercion, deception and basically, harassment in deploying of their vessels illegally,” he added.
Several Filipino soldiers were hurt, including one who lost his right thumb, while some of their guns were looted by Chinese during an incident that took place near Ayungin Shoal on June 17./PN
