President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said the Philippine government had used the mechanism he proposed with China for open communication following reports of the Chinese Coast Guard driving away Filipino fishing boats in Ayungin Shoal.

Marcos said that although he raised the proposal to Chinese President Xi Jinping during his visit to China early this month, both countries haven’t come to a compromise yet.

And the timing of reported “shadowing” by China’s Coast Guard of a Filipino fishing boat happened right after he had returned from China.

“So we have immediately used that thing, that mechanism that I talked about na sinabi we can even immediately contact the Chinese government, and hopefully our counterparts on the other side can bring it to President Xi’s attention, this problem, and we have done that,” the President said during an interview with the press.

“But it does not preclude us from continuing to make protest and continuing to send note verbales concerning this,” Marcos pointed out.

Marcos noted that it is a long process because it is something new, hoping both sides can come to some kind of arrangement.

Filipino fishing boats are not armed, and they won’t pose a threat to anyone, Marcos stressed.

“So I think that is something that we can achieve in the near-term,” the chief executive pointed out.

The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) said Saturday that the Chinese Coast Guard drove away a Filipino fishing boat in Ayungin Shoal (Second Thomas Shoal) in the West Philippine Sea and continued to shadow them until they left the area early this month. Presidential News Desk