Philippine officials "reserve the right" to deploy its warship to respond to future harassment of Chinese vessels in the West Philippine Sea, National Security Council (NSC) officials said following the involvement of People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) vessels in the recent aggression against a Philippine ship in Scarborough Shoal.

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said on Thursday they filed a diplomatic protest through note verbale for Thursday's harassment of Chinese vessels against Filipino ships including the incident in the vicinity of Scarborough Shoal on Wednesday.

In an interview in Manila, Manalo noted that the Philippines is clearly within its "legal rights.”

“Certainly we don’t understand why China again is repeating these actions which are clearly illegal," he said.

As of December 5, the DFA has filed a total of 60 diplomatic protests against China since January and a total of 193 protests since the start of the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

In a television interview, NSC and National Task Force West Philippine Sea spokesman Jonathan Malaya noted that it's not fair or "unequal" if a Filipino "civilian ship is facing a warship of the People's Republic of China."

"It might be considered cowardice on the part of Beijing if we do not do anything. So in that vein, the Philippine government reserves the right also to deploy our Philippine Navy ships at the time and circumstance of our choosing," he said.

"Of course, we don't want to telegraph our intentions to Beijing but let it be noted here that it was not the Philippines that utilized warships. In this particular case yesterday, it was the People's Republic of China that utilized its PLAN ships to block and do dangerous maneuvers against the PCG and the (BFAR)," he added.

Malaya admitted that the government is "alarmed by this development" in the West Philippine Sea where Chinese warships are no longer just monitoring but now used to harrass Filipino civilian vessels in the area.

"If you will notice for the past many years, we have never deployed a Navy ship. They're just at the horizon monitoring what's happening. But in this case, the PRC decided to utilize the PLAN ship in blocking a civilian ship of the Philippines. So we are alarmed by this development. And as I said, we reserve the right to deploy our Philippine Navy ships as well," he said. Robina Asido/DMS