President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Friday defended the removal by the Philippine Coast Guard of a floating barrier installed by China in the West Philippine Sea, saying that it was necessary to protect the country's maritime territory and its fishermen.

In an interview with reporters in Siargao, the President said the barrier was inside Philippine territory, preventing local fishermen from accessing their traditional fishing grounds.

"I don't see what else we could do because those fishermen, when the rope was cut, the fishermen who entered on that day, caught 164 tons of fish in just one day," Marcos said. "That's what our fishermen were losing. So it's not right to put up a barrier like that, and it was  clearly inside the Philippines."

"We're not looking for trouble; we're just going to continue to defend the Philippines, its maritime territory, and the rights of our fishermen," he added, pointing out that Filipinos had been fishing at Scarborough Shoal for hundreds of years.

In recent months, China's actions in the West Philippine Sea have been marked by increasing aggression as it insists on exercising sovereignty over nearly the entire South China Sea.

Last week, Chinese Coast Guard ships placed a rope and nets barrier supported by buoys at Scarborough Shoal as a Philippine government fisheries vessel approached. Over 50 Filipino fishing boats were gathered around the shoal, the Philippine Coast Guard reported.

Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin earlier this week said the Philippines might submit a new protest against China to the  Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague over the massive destruction of coral reefs in at least two areas of the WPS.

In 2016, the arbitral court upheld the Philippines' 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone in the WPS while declaring null and void China's claim to the entire South China Sea based on its nine-dash line.

Last month, China added another dash to its discredited territorial claim, including the sea east of Taiwan.