Marcos takes up near crash of PH, China vessels off Spratlys with Chinese gov't

WASHINGTON - President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. has taken up with the Chinese government the recent incident wherein a Filipino and Chinese vessel nearly crashed off Spratly Islands.

While en route to the United States for an official visit, Marcos emphasized the need for a high level communication to avoid this kind of incident.

Marcos said the Philippine government is still waiting for China to complete its team who will handle this high level of communication.

“I asked him — you know, that this is the kind of thing that we want — we’re hoping to avoid, that this time it was a little more dangerous because malapit na sila eh (they were near each other). Talagang kamuntik na nagbanggaan (They almost collided) and that will cause a great many — that can cause casualties on both sides,” Marcos told reporters.

“And that’s exactly what we want to avoid. Kaya’t binilin ko sa kanila ‘yung aking sinasabi na mayroong high level na communication, tapusin na natin, buuin natin. Hindi pa natin nabubuo. We’re waiting for China to give us the details kung who will we be the team at their end,” he added.

(I told them that we have high level communication. Let's work on this.)

According to the President, the Philippine government already has a team for this enhanced communication with China to avoid miscommunication.

“Yung sa Pilipinas tapos na (The Philippine team is already formed). We already have the team — we have already submitted the names even the telephone numbers of these people so inaantay na lang natin ‘yung (we are just waiting for the) counterpart ng team natin from China,” Marcos said.

To recall, Marcos had proposed a communication mechanism to Chinese President Xi Jinping during his state visit to Beijing in January.

Marcos also raised to the Chinese leader the plight of Filipino fishermen in the West Philippine Sea as reports of Chinese harassment has since continued.

The Department of Foreign Affairs had called on China anew to respect the legal rights of the country to conduct maritime patrols following the almost collision incident.

On April 23, China Coast Guard vessel No. 5201 came within 50 yards of the Philippine Coast Guard's BRP Malapascua, blocking the latter’s path and exposing the Philippine vessels’ crew to danger.

China however said the near-collision was caused by the PCG's "premeditated and provocative action."

The PCG on the other hand said on Saturday that its maritime patrol in the West Philippine Sea was “non-provocative”. —KG, GMA Integrated News