In this Philippine Coast Guard handout photo, the officers and crew of BRP Teresa Magbanua hoist the Philippine flag to mark Philippine Independence Day on June 12, 2024.

MANILA – The Philippines has expressed its “complaint and displeasure” over China’s ramming of the Philippine Coast Guard vessel BRP Teresa Magbanua near Escoda or Sabina Shoal last weekend, Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo said Monday. 

“We have made the necessary approaches to China in terms of contacting them through various means to express our complaint and displeasure at what happened. And not only that, our concern about raising tensions over what was basically just innocent movement by Philippine vessel,” Manalo said in an interview in Malacanang.

China and the Philippines on Saturday accused each other of deliberately ramming their coast guard ships near Sabina Shoal. 

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Manalo said Philippine authorities were surprised by the incident, which happened as the vessel was moving around Escoda Shoal.

“They have accused us, as usual, of doing this and that, but obviously it was just their doing this… We were just moving, and we were surprised by this incident,” he said.

The Philippine government is studying “possible approaches to this issue” which could be made clear in the coming days or weeks, the official said.

“We're contemplating, at the moment, possible approaches to this issue. And I think siguro in the coming days or weeks, we'll probably have a better picture of where we're headed for this,” he said.

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Sabina Shoal is located 140 kilometers west of the Philippine island of Palawan and about 1,200 kilometers from Hainan island, the nearest major Chinese landmass.

Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Commodore Jay Tarriela said the China Coast Guard vessel 5205 "directly and intentionally rammed" the Philippines' ship, BRP Teresa Magbanua.

The vessel has been anchored inside Sabina Shoal since April to assert Manila's claim over the area.

Tarriela said the BRP Teresa Magbanua was rammed three times -- hitting the port bow, starboard quarter and port beam.

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No crew members were injured during the incident but the ship's bridge wing and freeboard were damaged. A hole was also found.

The collision was the fifth incident of Chinese maritime harassment this month, Tarriela said.

Philippine and Chinese vessels have collided near Sabina Shoal at least twice this month, and analysts say Beijing is trying to move deeper into Manila's exclusive economic zone and normalize Chinese control of the area.

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The discovery this year of piles of crushed coral at the shoal ignited suspicion in Manila that Beijing was planning to build another permanent base there, which would be its closest outpost to the Philippine archipelago.

Recent clashes between Philippine and Chinese vessels have also taken place around Second Thomas Shoal in the Spratly Islands.

A Filipino sailor lost a thumb in a clash there in June when Chinese coast guard members wielding knives, sticks and an ax foiled a Philippine Navy attempt to resupply a small garrison.

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Sabina Shoal is also the rendezvous point for Philippine resupply missions to the garrison on Ayungin (Second Thomas) Shoal.

The repeated confrontations prompted Manila to brand Beijing the "biggest disrupter" to peace in Southeast Asia at a defense conference this month.

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– With a report from Agence France-Presse