RP says Vietnam fired at plane

RP says Vietnam fired at plane

MANILA (Reuters): The Philippines on Thursday accused
Vietnamese troops of shooting at a Philippine aircraft over the
disputed Spratly Islands and said it had expressed its "greatest
concern" to Hanoi.

Foreign Secretary Domingo Siazon said the Philippine Air Force
plane was investigating a three-story concrete facility being
built by Vietnam on a reef claimed by the two countries when it
was shot at on Oct. 13. The plane was not hit.

He said the Philippine foreign ministry protested against the
shooting and the expansion of the Vietnamese facility on the reef
in a formal note handed to Vietnam's ambassador in Manila, Nguyen
Thac Dinh, on Wednesday.

"We view with the greatest concern these recent acts of
Vietnam," Siazon said in a statement.

"These acts, particularly the firing of shots at the
Philippine aircraft, are a clear assailment of the letter and
spirit of various regional, multilateral and regional agreements
and declarations entered into by both the Philippine and
Vietnamese governments," he said.

In Hanoi, Vietnam's Foreign Ministry did not comment on the
incident except to issue a statement saying the country had full
sovereignty over the Spratlys but that claimants there should
exercise restraint.

Siazon said the plane was shot at by Vietnamese troops while
trying to get a closer look at the "soon-to-be-complete
facility".

Siazon said the shooting took place about the same time as
officials of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN)
were in Bangkok to discuss a proposed code of conduct aimed at
preventing accidental conflicts in the Spratlys.

The Spratlys are a cluster of nearly 200 largely barren isles,
reefs and rocky outcrops in the South China sea that are claimed
wholly or in part by China, Vietnam, Taiwan, the Philippines,
Malaysia and Brunei. They are believed to potentially rich in oil
and natural gas.