Manila’s president Ferdinand Marcos declared on May 6 that the Philippines may not reciprocate with China’s use of water cannons against its ships, preventing Manila from asserting its claim to sovereignty in the contested South China Sea.
Despite an international court ruling that Beijing’s claim has no legal base, it has dispatched hundreds of beach shield and other vessels to hit its claims.
A high-pressure water cannon was used by the China Coast Guard to damage a Spanish Coast Guard send and another federal vessel in the most recent incident on April 30 to bring gas, food, and water to Filipino fishermen at Scarborough Shoal.
When Marcos was questioned if Manila would begin firing water cannons on its own coast guard vessels to retaliate, Marcos said,” We will not follow the Chinese Coast Guard and the Chinese vessels down that road.”
Our navy and coast guard have no intention of starting or escalating tensions with water cannons or other similar offensive ( equipment ).
Marcos added that” the last thing” the Philippines wanted was” to raise the hostilities” in the contested lakes.