Manila: On March 29, the Philippines filed a diplomatic protest over a Chinese Coast Guard vessel engaging in “close distance maneuvering”. The incident intensified the risk of collision in the disputed South China Sea, Manila’s national security adviser stated. “There may be counter-claims but we, as a nation, will stand by our established sovereign rights and sovereignty over the area,” Hermogenes Esperon, the country’s top security adviser, told reporters. “We’ve been saying that’s part of our territory,” he said, referring to the Scarborough Shoal where the encounter occurred.
