The National Security Council on Saturday slammed China for framing a narrative that the Philippines is interfering in its conflict with the United States.

In a news forum in Quezon City, NSC Assistant Director-General, Jonathan Malaya, said China wants to make it appear that the Philippines would also like to engage in a war with them by taking the side of the US.

"That is the position of China which the President clearly denounced — the President said there's no tension between conflicting powers na nakikisawsaw lang ang ating bansa (that the country is meddling)," he said, reiterating the previous remarks of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. during the recent ASEAN summit.

Malaya said that Marcos clearly pointed out that "this is legitimate Philippine interest — there is a territorial dispute not between China and the United States but the Philippines and China."

"So, when we say that nakikisawsaw lang ang Pilipinas sa isang tunggalian (the Philippines is interfering in conflict ) between China and the United States, it denigrates the position of the Philippines and it's unfair to the Philippines and is a wrong narrative framing," he added.

Malaya said the Philippines remains firm on its stand to protect sovereign rights and interests within the West Philippine Sea.

This after the Chinese Coast Guard's continued aggression on the country's territorial waters in Ayungin Shoal, with its most recent dangerous maneuvers trying to block anew the country's rotation and resupply mission to BRP Sierra Madre by the Western Command of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine Coast Guard last 7 September.

China is "misplaced bully"

In the same forum, AFP spokesperson Col. Medel Aguilar described CCG as a "misplaced bully" after it again harrassed the Philippine vessels in its EEZ.

"What we see there is the presence of the CCG is misplaced and a bully. The CCG is a misplaced bully at the WPS," he said.

Aguilar slammed China for claiming that the Philippines is intruding into their territory, prompting them to conduct law enforcement activity against the AFP and the PCG.

"After an incident happened in the West Philippine Sea, they will come up with a narrative—internal for Chinese people, that the Philippines is intruding into their territory and that's why they are conducting law enforcement activity, they want to regulate our actions—that's not true!" Aguilar pressed.

He lamented that such a narrative increases tensions over the WPS.

"So, I think these are simple reasons why we are having this trouble. There is no indisputable claim. The China Coast Guard is a misplaced bully at the West Philippine Sea," he said.

The AFP, meanwhile, announced the successful conduct of the RoRe mission in the BRP Sierra Madre amid the latest blocking attempts and harassment of the CCG and Chinese Maritime Militia against the Philippine vessels.