The Philippines has filed a diplomatic protest over the hit and run incident involving a Chinese vessel and a Philippine fishing boat over the contested West Philippine Sea.
Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. tweeted today that he filed the protest yesterday.
Locsin made his announcement in reaction to a statement from former senator Antonio “Sonny” Trillanes IV, a vocal critic of the Duterte administration, which suggested that the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) should refer the case to the International Maritime Organization (IMO).
The DFA secretary retweeted Trillanes’ statement and responded: “Thanks, meanwhile I fired off a diplomatic protest yesterday…but, Sonny, that I will proceed on the merits of the case and what it calls for while the matter is studied by the IMO.”
Thanks, meanwhile I fired off a diplomatic protest yesterday. The Maritime Safety Committee of the IMO is it; but, Sonny, that I will proceed on the merits of the case and what it calls for while the matter is studied by the IMO. Even our ally failed us in Scarborough, remember? https://t.co/IUbxiv1rRs
— Teddy Locsin Jr. (@teddyboylocsin) June 13, 2019
The hit and run incident was made public by Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana yesterday. In a statement, he said that a Philippine boat called the F/B Gimver 1 was anchored near the Recto Bank in Palawan (Reed Bank) when it was hit by a Chinese vessel and sank.
The Chinese vessel left the 22 Filipino crew members to fend for themselves but they were later rescued by Vietnamese fishermen.
The Philippine military does not think the collision was an accident, saying that the Chinese crew members would have stopped and rescued the Filipino fishermen if it were unintentional.
In a press conference today, Duterte’s spokesman Salvador Panelo said that the incident left the president feeling “outraged.”
When asked by the media what the government’s successive actions are, Panelo said: “What’s the next step, we will cut off diplomatic relations. That’s what is done when there are aggressive acts. First, file a diplomatic protest, if you’re not content with their explanation, and it appears that it was done on purpose, that’s a different story.”
“Our responses will always be calibrated,” Panelo said. “It depends on the degree [of their violations]. But definitely, we will not allow ourselves to be assaulted, bullied, to be the subject of such barbaric, uncivilized and outrageous actions from any source.”
Panelo said the Philippines is still waiting for China’s response to the diplomatic protest.
Duterte’s government is generally perceived to have pro-China policies, with the president even announcing an economic and military split from the United States, one of its oldest allies, to align himself ideologically with China.
Some critics have assailed the government for this, especially because Duterte has consistently refused to enforce a 2016 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea ruling which invalidated China’s claim over the West Philippine Sea.
