In 1999 the Philippine Marines ran this former U.S. Navy ship aground on a coral reef named Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea’s Spratly Islands archipelago. Essentially the ship acts as an ocean-going game of squatter’s rights over the not-quite-island ‘maritime feature’, and the Philippines continues re-supplying the ailing ship and the seamen who live aboard. As of late, the Chinese Coast Guard has been trying to interfere with those supply deliveries. If this dispute escalates furthe
"There was another attempt to distort the narrative by saying that there's a supposed promise. That has been put to rest already that there is no promise, and if ever there was such, such was, if ever, which we do not accept, rescinded," Teodoro said during a Palace press briefing.
The presence and dangerous blocking of China Coast Guard Vessel 5203 that caused its collision with the Philippine public vessel used for the resupply mission to the troops at BRP