President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is given full military honors at the Pentagon on May 4, 2023. He was welcomed by US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. Pia Gutierrez, ABS-CBN News 

MANILA — The US Department of Defense said the US will continue to stand with the Philippines amid heightened tension with China, which disrupted a Philippine resupply mission to the BRP Sierra Madre on Ayungin Shoal.

At a press briefing, Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, who is Pentagon press secretary, declined to give details on the Ayungin incident but said that “this kind of behavior is provocative, it's reckless, it's unnecessary, and … it could lead to something bigger and more violent.”

According to the Armed Forces of the Philippines, a Philippine Navy sailor “sustained severe injury” after the China Coast Guard intentionally rammed a Navy rubber boat during a resupply mission to the Sierra Madre.

READ: Philippine sailors injured as China boards, intercepts PH boats near Ayungin Shoal

Seven other Navy personnel were also injured in the incident, where, according to Beijing, China Coast Guard personnel boarded Philippine vessels.

“And so we are going to continue to stand with our Philippine allies. We condemn the escalatory and irresponsible actions by the [People’s Republic of China] to deny the Philippines from executing a lawful maritime operation in the South China Sea,” Ryder said.

“And as you've heard [Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin] and others say, the Philippines' rightful, legal maritime claims must be protected.”

Ayungin Shoal is in the West Philippine Sea, which is the part of the South China Sea within the Philippines' exclusive economic zone and continental shelf.

The US Department of State on Tuesday said China’s use of water cannons and aggressive maneuvers “endangered the lives of Philippine service members, is reckless, and threatens regional peace and stability.”

It also made reference to the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty between the Philippines and the US, the country’s only treaty ally and its former colonizer.

The Marcos administration has welcomed broader engagement with the US and with other partner nations, as well as the European Union, in the simmering dispute with China, which claims a large part of the West Philippine Sea.

READ: Marcos says Philippines will 'vigorously defend what is ours'

Activist groups, including Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, though, warn that US presence in the West Philippine Sea — and in the Philippines, in general — puts the country at risk of being caught in the middle of the rivalry between the US and China.

Among their suggested alternatives is holding joint maritime patrols with other countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, including those with claims in the South China Sea.

"While the purpose of joint patrols is civilian in character, it can also discourage aggressive actions by China, or any other disputant, which could escalate the existing tension," Bayan Muna chairman Neri Colmenares said last October.

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