Marcos eases fears of sea-row escalation

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said yesterday the Philippines would not use water cannon or any offensive weapons in the South China Sea, and the last thing it wanted was to raise tensions in the strategic waterway.

"We will not follow the Chinese coast guard and Chinese vessels down that road," Marcos said, adding the mission of the Philippine navy and coast guard was to lower tensions, and there no plans to install water cannon on vessels.

He was speaking as US and Filipino troops fired missiles and artillery in anti-invasion war games on a coast in northern Luzon, days after both governments objected to China's "dangerous" actions in regional waters.

Thousands of troops are conducting land, sea and air maneuvers against a backdrop of increased confrontations between Chinese and Filipino vessels around shoals in the South China Sea claimed by Manila, as well as stepped-up Chinese air and naval activity around Taiwan.

The Philippines and China have had several sea confrontations, most notably at the Second Thomas Shoal.

Last week, Manila protested Beijing's use of water cannon against Filipino vessels at the submerged reef, describing it as harassment and "dangerous maneuvers," after a rise in tensions in recent months.

The Philippines has said such moves were aimed at disrupting supply missions to Filipino soldiers stationed in a naval ship there, which Manila deliberately grounded in 1999 to bolster maritime claims.

"If the Philippines truly wants to de-escalate the situation in the South China Sea, it should immediately stop sending ships and stop sending supplies to illegally grounded ships," a foreign ministry official in Beijing said yesterday.

China claims sovereignty over much of the South China Sea, a conduit for more than US$3 trillion (HK$23.4 trillion) of annual ship-borne commerce, including parts claimed by the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei.

An international tribunal in 2016 said China's expansive claim had no legal basis, a decision Beijing has rejected.