PCG Spokesperson Commodore Jay Tarriela speaks to the media during a media forum in Quezon City on Saturday, February 25, 2023. (Photo from Jean Mangaluz)
MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) spokesperson Commodore Jay Tarriela said on Saturday that the agency has taken to publicizing incidents with Chinese patrol vessels as it consistently gets a reaction from the country over the filing of diplomatic protests.
According to Tarriela in a media forum, the National Task Force for the West Philippine Sea (NTF-WPS) has decided to publicize incidents of China’s harassment of Filipino seafarers.
“It was decided that all of these incidents will be made publicly available recognizing the fact that for us to expect changes from how China will react, is to expose those bullying activities and aggressive behavior of China,” said Tarriela.
Prior to this, not every incident has been publicized. When asked about prior incidents with China, said that he could not comment about it.
While the Philippines has actively filed diplomatic protests against China’s aggression, the Department of Foreign Affairs had said on February 17 that China has only responded to 101 of the 195 diplomatic protests filed by the Philippines in the year 2022.
READ: DFA logs 101 Chinese responses to PH’s diplomatic protests in 2022
“For diplomatic protests, sometimes, they’re just silent about it. But every time we make things publicly, that is when they come out, explain, justify, so I think we are in the right direction right now. With all those instances of bullying behavior, harassment of Filipino fishermen, that the Philippine Coast Guard can document. Once we publicize it, we are expecting that the Chinese will react,” said Tarriela in a mix of English and Filipino.
When asked if Tarriela thought that tensions were arising in the West Philippine Sea, he said that people are only talking about it now since they publicized it.