File photo from Oct 4, 2023 shows a Chinese coast guard ship (left), with a Chinese militia vessel (right), blocking Philippine coast guard ship, the BRP Sindangan, as it head towards Second Thomas Shoal in the disputed South China Sea during a rotation and resupply mission, - AP
MANILA: The Philippine Coast Guard said one of its ships was damaged on Tuesday (March 5) in a collision with a China Coast Guard vessel during a resupply mission in the South China Sea.
Chinese coast guard and other vessels undertook "dangerous manoeuvres and blocking", leading to a collision that resulted in "minor structural damage to the PCG (Philippine Coast Guard) vessel," PCG Commodore Jay Tarriela said in a post on social media platform X.
The BRP Sindangan, along with a sister ship, had been deployed "to support the Rotation and Reprovisioning Operation of the Armed Forces of the Philippines".
China claims almost the entire South China Sea, brushing aside competing claims from a host of South-East Asian nations and an international ruling that declared their case baseless.
The Chinese Global Times reported Tuesday that the China Coast Guard "lawfully took control measures on Tuesday against a Philippine vessel illegally entering the waters adjacent to Ren'ai Jiao in the Nansha Islands".
Ren'ai Jiao is the Chinese name for the Second Thomas Shoal in the Spratly island group, which Beijing calls Nansha by Beijing.
The collision was the second such incident since December, when Chinese ships blasted water cannon at Philippine boats. - AFP
