This frame grab from aerial video footage taken and released on March 23, 2024 by the Armed Forces of the Philippines, shows a vessel described by the Philippine armed forces as a China Coast Guard ship (L) deploying water cannon against the Philippine military-chartered civilian boat Unaizah May 4 during its supply mission near the Second Thomas Shoal in disputed waters of the South China Sea. Armed Forces of the Philippines 

President Ferdinand Marcos said Thursday the Philippines will not be "cowed into silence by China" after fresh confrontations in the South China Sea that left Filipino troops injured and vessels damaged.

Marcos's remarks came as China blamed Philippine actions for recent rising tensions between the countries in the hotly contested waterway, which Beijing claims almost entirely.

Beijing and Manila have a long history of maritime territorial disputes in the South China Sea and there have been repeated confrontations between their vessels near disputed reefs in recent months.

Manila summoned a Chinese envoy over the latest incident near Second Thomas Shoal in the Spratly Islands, which occurred last Saturday during a regular Philippine mission to resupply Filipino troops garrisoned on the BRP Sierra Madre, a grounded navy ship.

The Philippines said the China Coast Guard blocked its supply vessel and damaged it with water cannon, injuring three soldiers.

The China Coast Guard has defended its actions, describing them as "lawful regulation, interception and expulsion" of a foreign vessel that "tried to forcefully intrude" into Chinese waters.

China has urged Manila to "pull back from the brink" and stop "provoking trouble at sea", but Marcos hit back on Thursday.

"We seek no conflict with any nation, more so nations that purport and claim to be our friends but we will not be cowed into silence, submission, or subservience," Marcos said in a statement.

He said the Philippines would respond with a "countermeasure package that is proportionate, deliberate, and reasonable in the face of the open, unabating, and illegal, coercive, aggressive, and dangerous attacks by agents of the China Coast Guard and the Chinese Maritime Militia".

"Filipinos do not yield," Marcos said.

China claims almost the entire South China Sea, brushing off rival claims from other countries, including the Philippines, as well as an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis.

In a statement Thursday entitled "China Will Not Allow the Philippines to Act Wilfully", Beijing's defence ministry blamed "the provocations by the Philippine side" for the increased tensions over the South China Sea.

"Relying on the backing of external forces... the Philippine side has frequently infringed on rights and provoked and created trouble at sea, as well as spreading false information to mislead the international community's perception of the issue, which is, so to speak, going further and further down a dangerous road," it added.

US REPEATS IRONCLAD COMMITMENT

The United States, a treaty ally of the Philippines, has led a chorus of support for the Southeast Asian country in response to Chinese actions.

Marcos said the international community had "offered to help us on what the Philippines requires to protect and secure our sovereignty, sovereign rights, and jurisdiction while ensuring peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific."

"I have given them our requirements and we have been assured that they will be addressed," he said, without providing details.

His statement also came after US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin repeated the United States' "ironclad" commitment to its longtime ally in a call with his Filipino counterpart Gilberto Teodoro on Wednesday.

Last Saturday's incident followed similar confrontations near Second Thomas Shoal earlier in the month.

Manila said China Coast Guard ships caused two collisions with Philippine boats and water cannoned one of them, leaving four Filipino crew members injured.

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© Agence France-Presse

© Agence France-Presse