Commodore Jay Tarriela, spokesperson for the National Task Force for West Philippine Sea (NTF-WPS), said that the recent incident of harassment by Chinese vessels in the disputed area shows 'the lack of concern for regional peace and stability' of the Asian superpower.
"Their actions reveal their true intentions and expose their pretentious facade of claiming to be a benevolent rising power," Tarriela said in a post in X, formerly known as Twitter.
Tarriela stressed that the transparency strategy of the Philippines succeeds in 'showing the world the barbaric and unruly behavior of China'.
The Philippines allows local and international to join the missions of the Philippine Coast Guard in the West Philippine Sea, which allows them to document any incident of harassment perpetrated by China.
"The Philippines' transparency in bringing these actions to light is a success in showing the world the barbaric and unruly behavior of China, who resort to using force to justify their greed," Tarriela said.
"It seems that China has forgotten that transparency aims to expose their illegal actions, which they once successfully portrayed as gray zone tactics," he added.
On Tuesday, April 30, the National Task Force for West Philippine Sea (NTF-WPS)condemned said that the Chinese Coast Guard and Chinese Maritime Militia 'harassed, blocked, water cannoned, rammed' vessels of the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) and the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources going to Panatag Shoal for a humanitarian and assistance mission.
The task force said that BRP Bagacay, a ship of the PCG, suffered damages due to 'high-pressure water cannoning' by the Chinese ships.
The NTS-WPS said that the actions of China 'calls into question the sincerity of their call for dialogue and peaceful approaches to de-escalate the situation' in the West Philippine Sea.
