By John Victor D. Ordoñez, Reporter and Kenneth Christiane L. Basilio

THE PHILIPPINE military should explore new ways to deliver food and other supplies to its outpost at Second Thomas Shoal as China uses more force in blocking resupply missions, according to the Senate president.

“I urge our armed forces to explore alternative methods to deliver provisions to the BRP Sierra Madre in Ayungin Shoal (Second Thomas Shoal) so that our troops are properly resupplied, while minimizing the risks and achieving our desired objectives,” Senate President Francis “Chiz” G. Escudero said in a statement on Thursday.

The Senate will seek a briefing from the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) on how it plans to ease tensions in the waterway, he added.

Philippine military chief Romeo S. Brawner, Jr. told a news briefing on Wednesday that bolo-wielding Chinese Coast Guard men, China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy and maritime militia banded together to stop the delivery of food and supplies on June 17.

He said Chinese forces aboard rigid inflatable boats were holding bolos while they were going after two AFP rubber boats trying to deliver supplies to BRP Sierra Madre, a World War II-era ship that Manila grounded at the shoal in 1999 to bolster its maritime claim.

Mr. Escudero said the DFA should explore every avenue of dialogue with Beijing over filing diplomatic protests.

The Philippines has filed 163 diplomatic protests against China under the government of President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr., Foreign Affairs spokesperson Ma. Teresita C. Daza said on Wednesday. Thirty protests were filed this year.

A Philippine supply ship dangerously approached a Chinese vessel and collided with it after it illegally intruded into waters near Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea on June 17, the Chinese Coast Guard said on Monday.

Manila has called the claim “deceptive and misleading.”

China has issued a policy allowing its coast guard to detain people it deems trespassers in disputed areas.

“There are (other ways to deliver supplies), but they may require the AFP to either add to its inventory or lean on its American ally,” Raymond M. Powell, a fellow at Stanford University’s Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation, told BusinessWorld in an X message.

“The issue is that China has now adopted a near-permanent patrol inside of Ayungin Shoal from which it deploys its fast boats to harass all approaching craft,” he added.

He floated the idea of helicopter resupply as a viable option, noting that it would still be difficult to carry out since there is no landing area for aircraft at Second Thomas Shoal.

“So any supplies and personnel would need to be lifted on and off from a difficult hover,” Mr. Powell said.       

The government should consider conducting joint resupply missions with its defense allies, Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus B. Rodriguez told BusinessWorld in a Viber message.

“We should request our defense allies to join our Navy in escorting and protecting the delivery of supplies to BRP Sierra Madre,” he said.

But Michael Henry Ll. Yusingco, a senior research fellow at the Ateneo Policy Center, said China could use this to bolster its propaganda.

“Beijing will surely use this to get support from their domestic audience… [showing] that the whole world is ganging up on them,” he said via Messenger chat.

The Philippines could instead plan resupply missions when ally vessels are near the contested shoal, he added.

China’s coast guard has repeatedly used high-pressure water cannons to dissuade Philippine vessels from entering highly contested areas within the country’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) including Scarborough Shoal and Second Thomas Shoal.

Beijing has warned the Philippines about intruding into what it says are its territorial waters. It issued new rules, effective June 15, enforcing a 2021 law that allows its coast guard to use lethal force against foreign ships in waters it claims.

“A high-level naval diplomacy between the Philippine Flag in Command and its counterpart from the People’s Liberation Army Navy should discuss the maritime conundrum,” Chester B. Cabalza, founder of Manila-based International Development and Security Cooperation, said in a Facebook Messenger chat.        

Meanwhile, Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique A. Manalo met with Greece Minister of National Defense Nikos Dendias in Athens to discuss regional security issues.

“We discussed the need for like-minded countries like the Philippines and Greece to speak up for international law and uphold the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and 2016 arbitral award,” he said in an X post.