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.