The National Security Council scored China for accusing the Philippines of causing destruction and pollutants in the South China Sea, due to the Philippine Navy’s warship grounded at the Ayungin Shoal.

Citing a supposed result of its remote-sensing and field survey, China said there’s a “sharp decline in the distribution of scleractinian coral on the reef flat and lagoon slope of Ren'ai Jiao—Chinese name of Ayungin Shoal—particularly around the area where the Philippines’ BRP Sierra Madre (LS 57) is grounded.

“The accusation against the Philippines by so-called “Chinese experts” is false and a classic misdirection,” Assistant Director-General Jonathan Malaya, said Tuesday.

Malaya stressed that China “caused irreparable damage” to corals in the West Philippine Sea.

“It is China that has caused untold damage to the maritime environment, and jeopardized the natural habitat and the livelihood of thousands of Filipino fisherfolk,” he added.

Malaya cited China’s involvement in the destruction of the maritime environment, which was established by the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in 2016.

According to Malaya, Page 464 of the Arbitral Award states that China has aggravated the dispute by building a large artificial island on Mischief Reef (Panganiban Reef); inflicting permanent, irreparable harm to the coral habitat of Mischief Reef (Panganiban Reef); and commencing large scale island building and construction work in Cuarteron Reef (Calderon Reef), Fiery Cross Reef (Kagitingan Reef), Gaven Reef (Burgos Reef), Johnson Reef (Mabini Reef), Hughes Reef (McKennan Reef), and Subi Reef (Zamora Reef).

“These artificial islands now serve as Chinese military bases,” he further stressed.

Malaya lamented the Arbitral Tribunal found that Chinese authorities are aware that their fishers were harvesting endangered sea turtles, coral, and giant clams on a substantial scale in the SCS—using methods that inflict severe damage on the coral reef environment, and they had not fulfilled their obligations to stop such activities.

Also, a 2023 report released by the independent non-profit organization Center for Strategic International Studies (CSIS), found that “more than 6,200 acres (25 sq. kilometers) of coral reef have been destroyed by island-building activities in the South China Sea, with 75 percent of the damage being done by China.

Another 16,353 acres (66.1 sq. kilometers) of the coral reef were damaged due to giant clam harvesting by Chinese fishermen, and China has caused the most reef destruction through dredging and landfill, burying roughly 4,648 acres (18.8km2) of the reef.”

Malaya said the Philippines has also collated evidence that China has been responsible for severe damage to corals in Bajo de Masinloc, Rozul Reef, Escoda Shoal, Sabina Shoal, and Pag-asa Cays 1, 2, and 3, among others.

“The swarming and indiscriminate, illegal fishing activities of Chinese Maritime Militia in these areas have severely degraded the marine environment in the West Philippine Sea,” he emphasized.

Thus, Malaya called on the Filipino public and international community to be wary of “misleading information and fake news” being spread by Chinese state-owned media and so-called “Chinese experts”—“conducting malign influence operations in the Philippines, including this false accusation against BRP Sierra Madre.”

“We also call for an independent, third-party marine scientific assessment in the West Philippine Sea by impartial recognized experts—using underwater surveys, collated satellite imagery, photo and video references, and other scientific means—to establish the causes of coral reef damages and other recorded destruction of the maritime environment in the West Philippine Sea,” Malaya urged.

“We invite other Indo-Pacific nations to join the Philippines in pushing for a more united, coordinated, and sustained multilateral action to protect and preserve the marine and land biodiversity in our region,” he added.