The chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ Western Command, or AFP-WesCom, revealed on Thursday that he sustained a minor injury when two China Coast Guard vessels used water cannons on a private vessel resupplying the BRP Sierra Madre at Ayungin Shoal in the West Philippine Sea.

AFP-WesCom commander, Vice Admiral Alberto Carlos, said he was aboard the chartered resupply boat Unaizah Mae 4 when it came under water bombardment and harassing moves by the CCG last Tuesday, 4 March.

Four Philippine Navy personnel were initially reported to have been hurt in the incident. Carlos’ revelation made him the fifth Filipino to sustain injuries in the incident.

It was not the first time, however, that a high-ranking AFP officer experienced firsthand China’s aggression in the West Philippine Sea.

Last December, no less than AFP Chief of Staff, General Romeo Brawner Jr., was on a similar wooden-hulled resupply boat, the Unaizah Mae 1, when a CCG ship fired a water cannon and rammed it.

Carlos was also with Brawner in that incident, which had them staying overnight on the BRP Sierra Madre, a World War 2-era vessel intentionally grounded in 1999 to serve as a permanent AFP outpost in the shoal.