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Administration lawmaker Camarines Sur 2nd district Rep. LRay Villafuerte has expressed support for the Department of Foreign Affairs' (DFA) plan to pursue legal action against China over the Escoda Shoal collision incident. 

“It’s about time that we file a legal case while we pursue diplomatic protests against Beijing,” Villafuerte said over the weekend. 

Last Aug. 31, China Coast Guard (CCG) vessels surrounded and rammed the Philippine Coast Guard's (PCG) flagship vessel, the BRP Teresa Magbanua at the vicinity of Escoda Shoal.  

The collisions punched a hole in the Teresa Magbanua’s hull and caused other damage. It was the seventh scuffle between the PCG and CCG in the month of August.  

Escoda Shoal is 75 miles off Palawan and thus within the Philippines’ 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ), as set under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) of 1994. 

Shortly after the Escoda Shoal incident, DFA Secretary Enrique Manalo told reporters in Malacañang that Manila was seriously studying possible legal action against Beijing over the ramming attack.  

“We’re contemplating, at the moment, possible approaches to this issue—and I think (maybe) in the coming days or weeks, we’ll probably have a better picture of where we’re headed for this. But certainly, it (the Chinese-instigated collision) doesn’t help the situation,” he said. 

He said the DFA has already made the “necessary approaches” to China in expressing its complaint over Beijing’s latest hostile behavior in the WPS. 

Villafuerte is the majority leader of the powerful Commission on Appointments (CA).