'PH careful in dealing with Chinese vessels'

TOKYO: President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Monday said that his administration is «exerting all efforts» to respond to the increasing presence of Chinese vessels in the West Philippine Sea (WPS).

Speaking to Filipino journalists in Tokyo, the President said the Philippines is «being very circumspect» in the actions that it will take.

«We are exerting all efforts, but we have to be very careful. We do not overreact that we do not make mistakes that might be misinterpreted by anyone,» Marcos said.

«We need to be very careful because if that happens again, if we heighten the tensions, it won't lead us to good results,» he added.

Ray Powell, director of SeaLight and Project Lead for Project Myoushu at Stanford University's Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation, earlier said that a swarm of Chinese ships had ventured inside the Ayungin (Second Thomas) Shoal.

Powell said satellite imagery taken on Monday showed «an extraordinary» number of 11 Chinese vessels inside the shoal and 27 other ships surrounding Ayungin, including vessels involved in Sunday's incident.

He said two of the Chinese vessels were «rafted together» near the northwest corner of the shoal about 2 kilometers south of where the BRP Sierra Madre was grounded.

«It's quite rare to see Chinese vessels enter the shoal's interior at all, but 11 is certainly the highest number we've yet observed,» Powell said.

«This highly unusual invasion of the shoal's interior appears to have been a calculated show of force by Beijing,» he added.

Meanwhile, Marcos said he would not seek the recall of Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Huang Xilian after he confronted and pointed at Armed Forces of the Philippines chief Romeo Brawner Jr. over the West Philippine Sea issue.

«Well, he is the ambassador of China, so he will always take the Chinese position. Again kung siguro ako personally ang pinag-uusapan maybe I'll be upset, but you are not talking about me, you are talking about the Philippines; it does not serve any purpose for us to lose our temper or overreact,» Marcos said.

«I think Ambassador Huang is just doing his job; he is continuing to state the Chinese narrative. Of course, we won't agree with that