Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo denied an alleged promise to remove a Philippine Navy vessel, which has been grounded in Ayungin Shoal for at least 20 years.

"On the issue of Ayungin Shoal, we call it Ayungin Shoal in the Philippines or Second Thomas Shoal, there was never any promise to take off the ship, take out the ship," Manalo said during the 61st Munich Security Conference session on maritime tensions in South China Sea on Monday.

Manalo questioned the "huge presence" of Chinese Coast Guard ships in the vicinity of Ayungin Shoal which he noted is hundreds of miles away from China.

"What we should really take into account is, why is there such a huge presence of Chinese coast guard vessels around Ayungin Shoal?," he said.

"That shoal is only 70 nautical miles from Philippine territory, yet it's hundreds of miles away from Hainan Island. Why are there so many Chinese coast guard ships there? Is it their territory? Anyway? If we follow Hong Kong or the arbitral award, we are clearly within our rights to patrol that area, but we don't want to pose any threat. We're merely in that area exercising our rights," he added.

Emphasizing the harassment of Chinese vessels against Philippine ships in previous years, Manalo noted that what the Philippines wants is for China to "behave professionally".

"Unfortunately, last year in 2023 and 2024 the Philippine Coast Guard vessels experienced a number of incidents of ramming, water cannoning, even the use of a laser. Our desire was that perhaps we could behave professionally, if there are any differences, we could use the standard ways of informing other vessels," he said.

"Perhaps if we feel they're not in the right place, here or there, we use the mechanisms provided for by the IMO and not resort to water counting or ramming. And I think it's very important that by using these kinds of tactics, we only raise tensions. There are other ways that we can reduce tensions, but these are not the way to do it." Robina Asido/DMS