Ranking members of the House "Young Guns" bloc condemned on Tuesday, Aug. 12 the latest act of harassment by the China Coast Guard (CCG) on a Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) vessel in the West Philippine Sea (WPS).

Deputy Speakers La Union 1st district Rep. Paolo Ortega V, Zambales 1st district Rep. Jay Khonghun, and Deputy Majority Leader Lanao del Sur 1st district Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong castigated the CCG in a joint statement even as its plan backfired.

The incident happened on Monday in the Scarborough Shoal area, according to the PCG, with BRP Suluan successfully evading water cannon blast from CCG-3104.

BRP Suluan's evasive maneuvers resulted in a collision between the CCG craft and a warship of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA). PCG videos of the mishap have since gone viral.

“The Chinese have become victims of their own aggression,” Ortega said.

“They are not supposed to be in Scarborough in the first place. They are intruders there. That area off Zambales and Pangasinan is what is known to our fishermen as Bajo de Masinloc. It is their traditional fishing ground,” he said.

China seized Scarborough Shoal in 2012 after a standoff between CCG and PCG. It has since been harassing Filipino fishermen fishing in that area and Philippine ships patrolling it.

Khonghun reckoned that China’s maritime aggression “endangers not only our people but their own".

“What happened on Monday is karma manifesting itself, if the Chinese understand the word. What goes around comes around. Unfortunately for them, they were at the receiving end of their own misdeed,” Khonghun said.

For his part, Adiong urged China to learn its lesson from Monday’s incident.

“There is nothing to be gained in claiming a territory belonging to another country and refusing to recognize the ruling of an arbitral tribunal constituted under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea that favored the Philippines, even if many countries acknowledge or support that ruling,” he said.

Adiong said it’s high time that Beijing stop its aggressive activities in the WPS, from Scarborough Shoal in the north off Zambales and Pangasinan, to Ayungin Shoal in the south near Palawan--areas that are far away from mainland China, he said.

Adiong also told China's “disinformation peddlers” not to reverse the narrative of what happened on Monday.

At the same time, the three House leaders praised the PCG crew “for acting professionally in the face of provocation from their Chinese counterparts".

Reports said PCG offered aid to the CCG following the mishap.