The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) has rejected claims from the Chinese Embassy in Manila that the Philippines had promised to remove BRP Sierra Madre from Ayungin Shoal, calling Beijing’s narrative an attempt to rewrite history.

AFP spokesperson Roy Vincent Trinidad, a retired admiral, said the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) speaks of “promises” and “demands but “very easily forgets its own track record of deceptive narratives in our waters.”

“The AFP rejects the recent statement from the Chinese Embassy in Manila attempting to rewrite history regarding the presence of the BRP Sierra Madre at Ayungin Shoal,” he said.

This was his response to a statement from Chinese Embassy Deputy Spokesperson Guo Wei accusing Manila of reneging on a commitment to remove the grounded warship from the shoal.

Trinidad recalled how in 1995, China’s foreign ministry assured the Philippines and the international community that the octagonal wooden structures it built on Panganiban Reef (Mischief Reef) were “shelters for local fishermen” with no military purpose.

“Today, those ‘shelters’ have been transformed into a fortified, 550-hectare military airbase complete with a 3,000-meter runway, missile emplacements, radar domes and naval berths,” Trinidad said.

“Mischief Reef stands as a permanent, concrete monument to their deceptive strategy in the West Philippine Sea.” he added.

The AFP stressed that unlike China’s island-building on low-tide elevations inside the Philippine exclusive economic zone, the grounding of the BRP Sierra Madre in 1999 was a lawful sovereign act.

“The presence of the BRP Sierra Madre on Ayungin Shoal is a lawful, permanent sovereign deployment on a feature over which we exercise sovereign rights and jurisdiction,” Trinidad stressed.

He added that the 2016 Arbitral Tribunal ruling, which invalidated China’s claims in the South China Sea, also affirmed Ayungin Shoal as a low-tide elevation within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

“No binding commitment was made to remove the BRP Sierra Madre from Ayungin Shoal,” Trinidad said.

“The AFP remains firm in executing its mandate to protect Philippine national sovereignty, uphold international law, and maintain our presence on Ayungin Shoal. We will never abandon BRP Sierra Madre,” he added.

The national government had deliberately grounded BRP Sierra Madre, a World War II warship now in a dilapidated state, on Ayungin Shoal in 1999.

Guo said Beijing lodged formal protests in that same year and demanded the ship be towed away.

“The Philippine side promised, again and again, that it would tow that rusty hulk out of there. It has been 27 years and the ship is still there. China demands the broken ship be towed away immediately,” Guo claimed.