China sea clash doesn’t invoke US defence pact: Philippines

MANILA: A South China Sea confrontation this week, in which Chinese coast guard personnel brandished weapons and rammed Philippine naval boats, does not trigger Manila´s mutual defence pact with the United States, a presidential spokesperson said on Friday.

Footage released by Manila showed Chinese coast guard sailors brandishing knives, an axe and other weapons in Monday´s clash, in which a Filipino sailor lost a thumb, as they stopped a Philippine navy attempt to resupply a Filipino garrison on a derelict warship.

“We are not yet ready to consider this as an armed attack,” President Ferdinand Marcos´s executive secretary Lucas Bersamin told reporters when asked if Manila would ask Washington to honour the 1951 treaty.