Philippines rejects use of water cannon in South China Sea

• Marcos stated that the Philippines is defending its sovereign rights in the West Philippine Sea.
• This is the 20th protest against Beijing's conduct in the South China Sea this year.
• Marcos stated that the Philippines will continue to respond to South China Sea incidents through diplomatic means.

On Monday, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. announced that Manila would refrain from using offensive equipment in the disputed South China Sea, following China’s coast guard's use of high-pressure water cannon on Philippine vessels last week.

The Philippines and China have engaged in several confrontations in the resource-rich area, with Beijing using water cannon against Filipino vessels in incidents Manila has described as harassment and dangerous.

On April 30, the latest in a string of maritime clashes occurred as tensions continued to rise in the vital waterway that Beijing claims almost in its entirety, despite a 2016 international arbitration ruling that rejected its assertion.

“What we are doing is defending our sovereign rights and our sovereignty in the West Philippine Sea. And we have no intention of attacking anyone with water cannons or any other such offensive (weapons),” Marcos said Monday.

“We will not follow the Chinese coast guard and the Chinese vessels down that road because it is not the mission of the navy (or) our coast guard to start or to increase tensions … Their mission is precisely the opposite, it’s to lower tensions.”

Last Thursday, the Philippines’ Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned Zhou Zhiyong, China’s deputy chief of mission, after the incident left a Philippine coast guard vessel and another government boat damaged. This occurred as Chinese ships regularly targeted Philippine vessels in areas of the South China Sea internationally recognized as belonging to the Philippines, which Manila refers to as the West Philippine Sea.

It was the 20th protest that Manila has made against Beijing’s conduct in the South China Sea this year alone, while more than 150 diplomatic complaints have been made over the past two years.

Marcos stated that the Philippines will continue to respond to South China Sea incidents through diplomatic means.

Marcos’s statement comes days after the defense ministers of the Philippines, the US, Japan, and Australia met in Hawaii and issued a joint statement expressing their strong objections to the “dangerous and destabilizing conduct” of China in the South China Sea.

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