Manila, Kuala Lumpur nearly came to blows over Spratlys: Reports
Manila, Kuala Lumpur nearly came to blows over Spratlys: Reports
MANILA (AFP): Malaysian and Philippine aircraft nearly engaged
while flying over a Malaysian-occupied reef in the disputed
Spratly islands last week, in what Filipino defense chief Orlando
Mercado downplayed Sunday as a "normal occurrence."
The incident occurred Thursday morning when two Philippine air
force OV-10s on a reconnaissance flight were met by two Malaysian
Hawk fighters in a brief standoff over the Malaysian-controlled
Investigator Shoal, defense sources said.
No shots were fired and the two Philippine aircraft retreated,
the sources said.
Defense Secretary Orlando Mercado dismissed the incident as
"just a normal occur about," Mercado said. "There was no
encounter...it just so happened that their aircraft were also
there when our aircraft were conducting patrol flights."
Mercado said his department "assumed" the fighter jets were
Malaysian, "since the area was near a Malaysian-occupied
territory."
A formal protest over the incident would not be pursued, the
sources said, stressing Malaysia "can always claim that it is
within their airspace and we can always claim the same."
The incident came amid heightened tensions in the Spratlys
after Manila filed last week a diplomatic protest against Vietnam
after its troops allegedly shot at a Philippine air force plane
flying over a Vietnamese-controlled reef.
Vietnam accused the Philippines of seriously violating
Vietnam's sovereignty and reiterated its claim to sovereignty
over all the Spratlys islands, a report said Sunday.
"The Philippines' airforce planes have continuously flown over
some islands of the Spratly peninsula, seriously violating
Vietnam's sovereignty", the official Communist Party daily Nhan
Dan quoted the foreign ministry as saying.
The Vietnamese foreign ministry said "Vietnam troops
completely kept restraint and only opened fire on the Philippine
air force reconnaissance plane as a warning after it flew too
low," the Nhan Dan said.