The Philippines No Longer Want To Be Threatened And Pushed Around By China.   They Will Toughen Their South China Sea Stance.

The Philippines is set to toughen its stance in the South China Sea following a string of incidents involving Chinese coast guard vessels, a navy admiral said yesterday.

Vice Adm. Alberto Carlos, the chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP)’s Western Command, or Wescom, told journalists that the Marcos administration was in the midst of forming “a national strategy” to defend its South China Sea, which would involve a “stronger assertion of rights in the sea.”

Carlos, whose Palawan-based command covers the Philippines’ possessions in the South China Sea, spoke just days after the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) discovered a 300-meter submerged barrier that Chinese vessels allegedly installed at Scarborough Shoal. The PCG reported that the barrier had prevented Filipino fishermen from accessing the fish-rich central lagoon of the shoal.

While the shoal lies around 200 kilometers west of the Philippine island of Luzon, and well within Manila’s exclusive economic zone, it has been occupied by China since a stand-off between the two countries in 2012.

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