Philippines must 'do more' than protest China's actions in South China Sea, Marcos says

FILE PHOTO: Philippines' President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. looks on as he meets with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, at Malacanang Palace in Manila, Philippines, March 19, 2024. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein/Pool/File Photo

By Neil Jerome Morales and Mikhail Flores

MANILA (Reuters) -The Philippines needs to "do more" than protest China's "illegal action" against its navy during a routine resupply mission in the South China Sea last week, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said on Thursday, but did not elaborate.

A Philippine sailor was injured on June 17 after what the southeast Asian nation's military called "intentional-high speed ramming" by the Chinese Coast Guard, an assertion China has disputed, saying the actions were lawful.

"We have filed over a hundred protests, we have already made a similar number of demarche," Marcos told reporters on the sidelines of an employment event in Manila, the capital. "We have to do more than just that."

He gave no details, however.

No shots were fired in the incident, so the Chinese action could not be considered an armed attack, Marcos added, calling it a "deliberate action" to stop the resupply of Philippine troops stationed at the disputed Second Thomas Shoal.

China's embassy in Manila did not immediately respond on Thursday to a request for comment on the remarks.

The United States, which has condemned China's actions, reaffirmed its ironclad commitment to the Philippines in a telephone call between Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and his Philippine counterpart on Wednesday.

"The two officials discussed the importance of preserving the rights of all nations to fly, sail, and operate — safely and responsibly — wherever international law allows," the Pentagon said in a summary.

The South China Sea, vital to global trade, has become a major flashpoint in the testy relationship between China and the United States.

The United States is bound by a seven-decade-old mutual defence treaty to defend the Philippines against an armed attack on its aircraft, or public vessels, in the busy waterway.

"It needs to be emphasised that the Ren'ai Reef issue is not the United States' business," Wu Qian, a spokesperson of the Chinese defence ministry, told a press briefing, using China's name for the Second Thomas Shoal.

"It is extremely dangerous and irresponsible for the United States to instigate and support the Philippines' infringement and provocation," Wu added, dismissing its treaty with the United States as a useless threat.

The Philippines has not asked the United States for support in resupplying its troops, its Washington ambassador said on Wednesday, adding that the United States was providing only "visuals" to aid his nation.

Ambassador Jose Manuel Romualdez said the Philippines had sought a meeting with Chinese officials to lower tension, not resolve territorial claims, and hoped it could happen early next month.

Romualdez said that if the Philippines could not resupply its troops, that would amount to "killing" its soldiers through starvation and thirst.

"I don't think China wants to have a major conflict," he said. "And definitely we do not want to have one. And so, that's a good starting point."

China claims almost the entire South China Sea, including areas claimed by Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam.

An international tribunal dismissed China's expansive claims in 2016, a ruling that Beijing rejects.

(Reporting by Mikhail Flores and Neil Jerome Morales; Additional reporting by Laurie Chen in Beijing; Editing by Gerry Doyle and Clarence Fernandez)