Navy dismisses Beijing’s ‘consequences’ warning

The Philippine Navy has shrugged off China’s warning of “consequences” in the West Philippine Sea, describing it as “malign influence.”

Rear Admiral Roy Vincent Trinidad, Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) spokesperson for the West Philippine Sea, cautioned the public against disinformation from Beijing.

“We have been very deliberate in telling the public: Be careful what we digest especially those messages coming from the Chinese Communist Party because many of these are meant to justify their actions which we know historically have no basis in international law,” Trinidad said.

“So, when they say that there will be consequences we take it with a grain of salt. It will not deter us from performing our mandate, from doing our patrols, from doing our resupply missions,” he added.

Trinidad stressed that the Department of National Defense and the AFP are focused on their mandate to safeguard Philippine sovereignty.

“In case there are coercive and aggressive actions and — there are many of them — every now and then they play it up,” Trinidad said.

“We ensure that all our actions are within the bounds of law. Our posturing is not aggressive, non-provocative. As our Commander-in-Chief clearly said, ‘We are not here to provoke. We are here merely to secure and to protect what is ours.’ We are not claiming anything that is not ours. We’re only protecting what is ours,” he said.

On Chinese ship movements, Trinidad noted a temporary decline.

“Yesterday, the numbers dropped a little — this could most likely be on account of the weather, the weather is bad in our waters right now,” he said.