MANILA (UPDATED) – The Philippines’ military chief on Monday accused China’s coast guard of firing water cannon at Filipino fishermen for the first time to drive them away from a disputed sea shoal.
General Emmanuel Bautista said Chinese vessels fired cannon on January 27 near Scarborough Shoal — the subject of a bitter territorial row in the strategically important South China Sea (West Philippine Sea).
“The Chinese coast guard tried to drive away Filipino fishing vessels to the extent of using water cannon,” Bautista told a forum of the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines.
He did not say if anyone was hurt and added that China continues to maintain an armed coast guard and other vessels at the shoal.
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