The stern and clear statement came shortly after Manila accused China Coast Guard ships of intensifying their harassment in the disputed maritime region by firing water cannons at Philippine Bureau of Fisheries boats over the weekend and deliberately ramming one of the vessels. The incident occurred just 1.8 nautical miles off Thitu Island, the largest of the nine Philippine-controlled features and the second naturally occurring island in the disputed Spratly Islands chain.
While it is beyond the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone, Thitu, known locally as Pag-asa and by China as Zhongye, forms a part of the Kalayaan Island Group of Islands that is part of Palawan island-province, which geographically juts deeply and strategically into the South China Sea.
