Coast Guard spokesman Jay Tarriela said the Chinese ships harassed Coast Guard and Navy rubber boats regardless that he informed them the operation was medical in nature.
“The barbaric and inhumane behavior of the Chinese Coast Guard has no place in our society,” Tarriela said in a press release.
China’s foreign ministry said Beijing would allow the Philippines to send vital supplies to the grounded warship if it notified upfront.
“But the Philippine side should not use this as an excuse to send construction materials to the grounded warship,” ministry spokesman Mao Ning said at a news conference on Friday.
Tarriela said the China Coast Guard “was engaged in dangerous maneuvers and even deliberately rammed the PN RHIB while transporting sick personnel.”
“What should have been a simple medical evacuation became a subject of harassment,” Tarriela said.
Philippine military chief Romeo Brawner said Tuesday that the primary try and transport a sick soldier to the western province of Palawan failed after it was blocked by the Chinese.
The next day, with the assistance of the Philippine Coast Guard, one other attempt was made and the soldier was successfully evacuated, Brawner said.
China claims almost all the South China Sea, through which greater than $3 trillion in annual shipping trade passes, and has deployed a whole bunch of coast guard ships so far as 600 miles from the mainland to police an area it says falls under its jurisdiction.
Last yr, the Philippines and China repeatedly sparred near disputed facilities in Manila’s exclusive economic zone. China routinely accuses the Philippines of encroaching, while Manila and its allies condemn what they call Beijing’s aggression.
In 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague found that China’s claims had no legal basis, and Beijing rejected the choice.
