Disputed West PH Sea reef: Manila slams ‘irresponsible’ Chinese language report

This handout photograph taken on March 21, 2024 and acquired from the Philippine Coast Guard and Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Sources (PCG/BFAR) reveals an aerial view of Philippine scientists inspecting Sandy Cay reef, close to the Philippine-held Thitu Island, in Spratly Islands, in disputed waters of the South China Sea. The Chinese language coast guard seized management of a disputed reef close to a significant Philippine army outpost within the South China Sea, in accordance with Beijing’s state media, including to longstanding territorial tensions with Manila. The Chinese language coast guard “applied maritime management” over the Tiexian Reef, also called Sandy Cay, through the center of April 2025, state broadcaster CCTV reported on April 26, 2025. (Photograph by Handout / Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) / AFP)

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines on Monday slammed an “irresponsible” Chinese language state media report claiming a disputed reef within the West Philippine Sea was beneath Beijing’s management, saying the established order was unchanged.

The Sandy Cay reef lies close to Thitu Island, or Pag-asa, the place the Philippines stations troops and maintains a coast guard monitoring base.

Chinese language state broadcaster CCTV mentioned Saturday that the nation’s coast guard had “applied maritime management” over Tiexian Reef, a part of Sandy Cay, in mid-April.

READ: China seizes disputed West PH Sea reef close to key army outpost – report

The Philippines and China have been engaged in months of confrontations over the South China Sea, which Beijing claims almost in its entirety regardless of a world ruling that its assertion has no authorized foundation.

“There isn’t any fact in any way to the declare of the China Coast Guard that the (Sandy Cay sandbanks) have been seized,” Nationwide Safety Council spokesman Jonathan Malaya informed a Monday press convention.

Philippine Commodore Jay Tarriela (R), Coast Guard spokesperson for the West Philippine Sea, speaks whereas Nationwide safety Council Assistant Director Normal Jonathan Malaya (C) and Philippine Navy Rear Admiral Roy Trinidad (L), spokesman for South China Sea points, pay attention throughout a press convention in Manila on April 28, 2025. The Philippines on April 28, slammed a Chinese language state tv report claiming a disputed reef within the South China Sea was now beneath Beijing’s management as “irresponsible”,saying the established order was unchanged. Agence France-Presse

“It’s within the curiosity of the Individuals’s Republic of China to make use of the data area to intimidate and harass,” he mentioned, calling the Sandy Cay report a “made-up” story that had been “irresponsible” to disseminate.

CCTV on Saturday printed {a photograph} of 4 coast guard officers posing with a nationwide flag on the reef’s white floor, in what the broadcaster described as a “vow of sovereignty”.

There don’t seem like any indicators that China has completely occupied or constructed a construction on the reef, which is a bunch of small sandbanks within the Spratly Islands.

READ: PCG: Maritime op at Pag-asa Cay proves China’s declare is fake

Each the Philippine and Chinese language coast guards have issued statements up to now 24 hours describing profitable missions by which they landed on the reef to train their claims of sovereignty.

In latest months, Beijing and Manila have blamed one another for inflicting what they describe because the ecological degradation of a number of disputed landforms within the West Philippine Sea.

The US and Philippine militaries are at present conducting joint workouts that Beijing has mentioned represent a menace to regional stability.

Chinese language warships have been noticed in Philippine waters since these bilateral “Balikatan” workouts kicked off final week, with plane service Shandong reportedly coming inside 2.23 nautical miles (about 4 kilometres) of northern Babuyan Island.