There’s no need for the Philippines to ask permission from any country, particularly China when operating within its exclusive economic zone, a military official said Monday. 

In a chance interview, Armed Forces of the Philippines spokesperson Col. Francel Margareth Padilla debunked China Coast Guard’s claims that it made "temporary special arrangements" so that the Philippines could deliver supplies to soldiers stationed at a grounded World War II-era BRP Sierra Madre (LS 57) vessel in Ayungin Shoal in the West Philippine Sea. 

Padilla said there are no such arrangements made between the Philippines and China as the resupply efforts in the Ayungin shoal is a regular mission of the AFP. 

“We keep saying that we really going to provide for the morale and welfare needs of our troops so to include those from LS 57. We do not actually need any permission from any country for us to do it,” she said. 

Padilla said the AFP’s commitment to fulfill its mission in the WPS will remain intact amid the increasing number of Chinese vessels patrolling in the area. 

“These will continue. The AFP’s mission is to give our troops the required provisions that they need for their morale and welfare,” she stressed, noting that no words from China could stop the Philippines from asserting its sovereign rights to the WPS. 

China has a vast claim to almost the entire South China Sea which overlaps the exclusive economic zones of Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, and Indonesia. 

The AFP replenished the supplies to troops manning BRP Sierra Madre through an airdrop operation on 21 January after one of its vessels often used for RoRe mission suffered “technical difficulty”—prompting them to hold other provisional options.