President Marcos said the Philippines has no intention of attacking any vessel with water cannon in the West Philippine Sea (WPS), stressing that it will not replicate China's actions at sea.
Marcos reiterated that the Philippines is "only defending our sovereign rights and our sovereignty in the West Philippine Sea" and it has no plan to put any kind of cannon on its ships.
"And we have no intention of attacking anyone with water cannons or any other such offensive, we have to call them weapon dahil nagkakadamage na (because it is causing damage), so no that is not something that’s in the plan," he said in an interview on Monday, May 6.
The President stressed that the country "will not follow China" in terms of increasing tensions in the WPS through water cannon attack.
"The last thing we would like is to raise the tensions in the West Philippine Sea. That's the last. And that would certainly do that, so hindi natin gagawin (we will not do it). We will not follow the Chinese Coast Guard and the Chinese vessels down that road because it’s simply, it is not the mission of our Navy, our Coast Guard to start or increase tensions," he said.
Marcos pointed out that their mission is "precisely the opposite"—to lower tensions.
He added that the Philippines sticks to sending demarch and sending note verbale to China whenever a water cannon attack incident happens.
"So that will be the opposite of what we are trying to achieve, would be to put some kind of, any kind of cannon on our ships," he said.
The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) disclosed that Marcos has instructed them not to be provoked by China’s aggressive actions in the WPS, saying they "should not be the reason of intensifying the escalation for China to justify to once again bring the next level of aggression."
READ MORE: Marcos orders PCG: Don't be provoked by China's aggression in WPS