Philippine President Benigno Aquino demanded an explanation from China on Tuesday over a report its coast guard had fired water cannon at Filipino fishermen at a disputed shoal.
Aquino said the foreign department had been asked to file a “diplomatic message”, a day after the Philippines’ military chief told reporters of the incident at Scarborough Shoal – the subject of a bitter territorial row in the South China Sea.
“The first step would be a diplomatic message… directed at the People’s Republic of China to ask them to explain what this incident was all about, what their intentions are,” Aquino told reporters, when asked whether a formal protest would be lodged.
Scarborough Shoal is a rocky outcrop, considered a traditional fishing ground by Filipinos, which lies just 220km off the main Philippine island of Luzon. It is about 650km from Hainan island, the nearest major Chinese land mass.