The Philippines rules out activating the mutual defense treaty with the US after the latest dispute with China

Manila lowers its tone and calls what happened this week in the South China Sea a “misunderstanding”

June 21. (EUROPA PRESS) –

The Philippine Government this Friday ruled out resorting to the Mutual Defense Treaty with the United States, signed more than 70 years ago, after the last dispute with Beijing in the South China Sea and has stressed that it considers that what happened does not represent a ” armed attack” as such.

In that sense, the executive secretary of the Philippines, Lucas Bersamin, has lowered his tone regarding the accusations of “piracy” made the day before by the Armed Forces and has described what happened as a “misunderstanding.”

“We are not yet prepared to classify this as an armed attack,” he said in relation to the meeting between Chinese and Filipino soldiers that took place on Monday, June 17. “It was probably a misunderstanding or an accident,” he concluded.

In what appears to be a gesture towards the Chinese authorities, Bersamin has stated that perhaps the confrontation occurred due to Beijing’s lack of prior knowledge of the Philippine mission to resupply the checkpoint it maintains on the Second Thomas Atoll, the epicenter of the dispute.

Thus, he has announced that the Philippine Government, “in the best interest of all parties”, will publish each of these missions in the future, Bloomberg reports.

The day before, the head of the Philippine Armed Forces, Romeo Brawner Jr, accused Beijing of “piracy”, as well as the Chinese coast guard of seizing weapons, drilling boats and ramming Philippine ships. Those incidents left one Filipino soldier injured.

For its part, Beijing defended its response to stop the “illegal” resupply of this settlement as “professional and moderate” and stressed that the incidents occurred due to the “Philippines’ stance of ignoring China’s deterrence measures.”