Over the Sunday table recently, the conversation revolved around the gall and malice emanating from the sea — West Philippine or South China — however you want to refer to it.

Recent reports of China issuing careless statements (or is “contemptuous” the better word for it?) that practically turn the tables on the Philippines had some of us gnashing our teeth rather than chewing on baby squid and tofu.

“Stop creating a political drama from fiction,” China’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said on 26 September during a press conference in Beijing, referring to the issue of coral destruction in our oceans.

Her exact words were: “The Philippines’ accusations have no factual basis. We urge the relevant party of the Philippines to stop creating a political drama from fiction.”

Certainly, the dead corals in the West Philippines Sea are no fiction. And the fact is “massive coral harvesting in Rozul Reef” had lately been reported by the Armed Forces of the Philippines, which also noted similar destruction at Escoda Shoal.

Our experts from the academe had raised an alarm on the impact the coral destruction will have on the marine ecosystem long before the Philippines considered filing a case against China over the coral destruction.

Many believe the areas recently identified as having “missing and destroyed corals,” as reported in this paper, will soon be hives of activity as China moves to reclaim them in spite of the ongoing disputes.

Coming from unpalatable servings of one poker-faced Alice Guo/Guo Hua Ping and the POGO issue over the past weeks, said pronouncements feel very much like China running roughshod over us anew even as it continues to reject the 2016 ruling of The Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration that its maritime claims “have no legal basis.”

In early July, it was China that used the word “illegal,” referring to the “beaching of Philippine warships” at what it calls Nansha Islands.

Beijing claimed this was what had “’gravely damaged’ the coral reef system in the area,” as reported in AsiaOne, a Singapore-based news site. The report also cited China’s Ministry of Natural Resources stating that the warships had “seriously damaged the diversity, stability and sustainability of the reef ecosystem.”

Just a month before, in June, Filipino scientists had reported the “ecological disaster” that Escoda Shoal had become from the vast damage they observed.

“Almost 100 percent of the corals dead,” scientists from the University of the Philippines Jonathan Anticamara and Fernando Siringan said.

In February this year, the Center for Strategic and International Studies averred that China had “destroyed at least 21,000 acres of coral reefs in the West Philippines Sea,” which the UP Marine Science Institute said would likely cause a decline in fish production or worse, “the extinction of fish dependent on coral reefs.”

And before that — in December 2023 — the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative published “Deep Blue Scars: Environmental Threats to South China Sea,” which pointed out that the biggest victim in this struggle over the disputed waters is the marine ecology.

Among the highlights of the report are: “Over 6,200 acres of coral reef have been destroyed by island-building efforts in the South China Sea, with 75 percent of the damage being done by China;” and "What troubles may be seen underneath the disputed waters will eventually affect all those who caused these very same problems."

Unless there is respect all around — for the living environment we so carelessly or contemptuously take from, and for each other, fellow humans — this cycle of destruction will no doubt end when it has ended us all.