MANILA: The Philippine military chief, General Romeo Brawner, today condemned the “provocative actions” of two Chinese air force jets that executed a dangerous manoeuver and dropped flares in the path of a Philippine air force plane on routine patrol in the South China Sea.
Gen Brawner said all those aboard the Philippine air force, NC-212i, light transport plane were unharmed and returned safely to Clark Air Base (north of Manila) after the incident took place on Thursday morning over the Scarborough Shoal. A top Philippine security official said the Chinese jets flew at a “very close distance” to the Philippine air force turbo-prop plane and “put the lives of our pilots in real risk and danger”. Another security officer said at least eight flares came from the Chinese fighter jets.
There was no immediate reaction from Chinese officials. Beijing disputes sovereign control over the rich fishing atoll. In a statement, Brawner said, “The incident posed a threat to the Philippine air force aircraft and its crew, interfered with lawful flight operations in airspace within sovereignty and jurisdiction of the Philippines and contravened the international law and regulations governing the safety of aviation.”
Gen Brawner said the incident had been reported to Manila’s Department of Foreign Affairs, which had filed numerous diplomatic protests against China’s increasingly aggressive actions in the disputed waters. He said the incident would not stop the Philippines from undertaking such patrols in the contested region.
Aside from China and the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand have overlapping territorial claims in the busy sea passage, but hostilities have particularly flared since last year between the Chinese and Philippine coast guard and navy forces in Scarborough Shoal.