Filipino soldier injured by China Coast Guard near Ayungin Shoal

MANILA, Philippines — A Filipino soldier was injured during a quick confrontation with China Coast Guard (CCG) personnel in Ayungin (Second Thomas) Shoal in the West Philippine Sea early Monday, July 20. CCG personnel used a long pole the military described as a “wooden baton” to hit the soldier, whose identity was not publicly divulged as of posting time. The strike resulted in an open wound on the soldier’s head, around 1.5 inches long. The soldier was given first aid as soon as he returned on board the BRP Sierra Madre. “The CCGV personnel reacted violently and aggressively by striking a Philippine Navy personnel on the head with a wooden baton, causing injury and damaging the Navy rubber boat operating within the area where our country enjoys sovereign rights under international law,” said the military in a statement. Based on initial reports from the Philippine military, eight CCG personnel aboard a rigid hull inflatable boat (RHIB) came as close as 20 yards to the BRP Sierra Madre, a World War II vessel that has served as a military outpost in the area since 1999. The boat was deployed from a CCG ship with hull number 21560 as the latter was anchored 600 yards from the Sierra Madre. The CCG RHIB went around the Sierra Madre and took photos and videos, according to the Philippine military. The BRP Sierra Madre’s crew, in response, deployed two rubber boats — one with two personnel and the other with five. The two boats ordered the CCG vessel to leave, but the Chinese did not budge. Initial reports from the military indicate that after CCH personnel refused to heed the orders of the Philippine soldiers, a commotion soon followed. Philippine personnel used their boat paddles to drive away the CCG. It was during that melee that one of the CCG personnel hit the Filipino soldier with the “wooden baton.” “These latest aggressive actions and assault by the CCGV demonstrate a blatant disregard for safety, endanger the lives of our personnel and escalates tensions in the West Philippine Sea,” added the Armed Forces of the Philippines. The AFP called on China’s military and CCG to “put a stop to their illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive actions within the West Philippine Sea and adhere to the 2016 Arbitral Award that affirms the Philippines’ lawful maritime rights under international law.” The BRP Sierra Madre was run aground in 1999 as part of the Philippines’ response to China building what it then claimed as a fisherman’s shelter in Mischief Reef, a feature just over 120 nautical miles off the coast of Palawan. Almost three decades since its unconventional final mission, the Sierra Madre is both a symbol and the literal space where the Philippines makes a stand on its entitlements and claims in the West Philippine Sea, a part of the South China Sea that includes its exclusive economic zone. It is one of several features in the South China Sea that’s a flashpoint for tensions between the Philippines and China. From 2023 and 2024, Ayungin was witness to tense confrontations between Manila and Beijing during resupply missions to the BRP Sierra Madre. Some of these missions have resulted in maritime collisions and near-collisions between Manila and Beijing. In June 2024,CCG personnel confronted elite Filipino soldiers already moored by the BRP Sierra Madre at close range during a rotation and resupply mission. A Filipino soldier’s thumb was severed as a result of the clash and military equipment were left damaged. That incident was the tensest yet between the two countries in the South China Sea, since a standoff in Scarborough Shoal back in 2012. The Philippines and China eventually settled on a provisional understanding covering missions to the shoal, and no incidents have since been made public. The Ayungin incident happens in the same week foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and its key partners are set to converge in the Philippines for a week’s worth of high-level talks. Among those expected to arrive in Manila are United States State Secretary Marco Rubio and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. The Philippines is a treaty-ally of the United States, bound by a Mutual Defense Treaty that covers the waters of the South China Sea. – Rappler.com