Senator Risa Hontiveros urged the Department of Foreign Affairs to hasten the filing of a resolution before the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), calling China to stop harassing the Philippines in its territorial waters. 

Hontiveros made the call amid the heightened atrocity of the China Coast Guard against the Philippine vessel in the Ayungin Shoal, which Beijing claims as part of its mainland territory. 

The senator slammed the latest dangerous maneuvres of the CCG vessels against the Philippine supply boat en route for a rotational and resupply mission to the BRP Sierra Madre in Ayungin on 23 March.   

“I am enraged at how China's water cannons relentlessly attacked our Filipino personnel. Kung may hindi pa magagalit dito, baka hindi na sila Pilipino (If they are not angry about this, then maybe they’re not Filipinos),” she said in a statement over the weekend. 

Hontiveros called on China to be “ashamed and stop behaving like criminals.”

“Have some decency. It's not too late to act like a dignified country,” she said. 

Further, Hontiveros stressed her “support to the DFA for lodging a strong protest” against China’s most recent and increased aggression in the West Philippine Sea. 

“I also call on the Department to expedite the filing of a resolution in the UN General Assembly that calls on China to stop this blatant violence in Philippine waters,” she said. 

Hontiveros also hoped that DFA could gather the country's neighbors in Southeast Asia, particularly Vietnam, and Malaysia, "to stand with the Philippines as we face common security threats and assaults by China.”

She said the move is “urgent” as the Filipino troops are continuously being battered in their own territory. 

“Let us show our troops that we are also taking concrete steps to fight for them in all diplomatic and political avenues available to us,” she said.

“China's white hulls are nothing but gray hulls in disguise. Her ‘police actions’ are unlawful acts of aggression under international law,” she further stressed.