MANILA, Philippines — Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) Commodore Jay Tarriela mocked a statement by China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) that hit “bullies.”
In a post on X last July 12, the agency’s account @MFAChina wrote: “No country is superior to another. No one has the right to bully others.”
“Any country who thinks it can bully others from a ‘position of strength’ will be acting against the trend of the times and rejected by the international community,” it added.
In response, Tarriela – spokesman for the PCG in the National Task Force – West Philippine Sea – rewrote the post of China’s MFA and thanked it “for standing up against bullies and supporting those who are bullied.”
He added, “I hope your government will internalize what you just said.”
Tarriela also included in his X post two screenshots from videos from the Armed Forces of the Philippines, which filmed personnel from the China Coast Guard and their speedboats surrounding rubber boats of the Philippine forces during a resupply mission at the Ayungin Shoal.
Encounters between Philippine and Chinese forces were usually rife with tension, as the Chinese side was deemed more aggressive than Philippine forces on rotation and resupply mission for troops onboard the BRP Sierra Madre grounded at Ayungin Shoal.
World leaders have declared their opposition to China’s tactics to claim sovereign rights over the entire South China Sea, which included dangerous maneuvers and use of water cannons aimed at Philippine resupply and patrol vessels.
China continues to ignore the ruling of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in 2016, which invalidated its nine-dash-line claim.
It also called “illegal” the decision which defined the Philippines’ sovereign rights and maritime entitlements in the South China Sea.