On Tuesday, Marcos summoned China’s envoy to express his “serious concern” over Beijing’s “increasing frequency and intensity of actions” against the Philippine Coast Guard and Filipino fishermen in the South China Sea.
The Philippines’ foreign ministry on Tuesday also filed a diplomatic protest after Manila’s coastguard reported its Chinese counterpart had directed a “military-grade laser” at one of its ships supporting a resupply mission to troops, temporarily blinding its crew on the bridge.
China’s recent actions, just a month after Marcos’ state visit to Beijing, has stoked a long-running territorial dispute over the South China Sea.
China claims large swathes of the strategic waterway, where about US$3 trillion in ship-borne trade passes annually, which was invalidated by an international tribunal in The Hague in 2016.