The Philippines has protested the renewed presence of more than 100 Chinese vessels that were sighted last week off Pag-Asa Island in the West Philippine Sea, Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. on Wednesday.
“Diplomatic protest fired off,” Locsin said on Twitter hours after National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon, in a media forum, revealed that 113 Chinese boats were sighted around the Philippine-occupied island.
Locsin did not say when the protest was filed, but a Filipino diplomat, who asked not to be named for lack of authority to speak on the matter, said that the Philippine government expressed its serious concern “both in writing and in face to face talks” with Chinese officials in Manila and in Beijing.
Manila has long expressed concern on the recurring presence of Chinese flotilla in Pag-Asa Island, an area in the Spratlys in the disputed South China Sea that is also being claimed by China. The Philippines refers to the waters in the South China Sea that falls within its exclusive economic zone as West Philippine Sea.
Early this year, more than 200 Chinese vessels were spotted in the area and China’s latest action of sending dozens of boats in Pag-Asa this month complicates the already tense situation in the South China Sea.
Esperon said he doesn’t know China’s motivation for swarming the area with its vessels.
