About 25 years ago, a Philippine Navy chief ran his own ship aground.
But decades later, the officer revealed that the move was a plot to disrupt China, not an accidental disaster.
The BRP Sierra Madre, a rusting World War II-era ship, still sits in the South China Sea. Although it cannot sail, it serves as a vital outpost for the Philippine military in the Second Thomas Shoal, which both China and the Philippines claim.
The ship has proven to be an obstacle for China, which has aggressively expanded its presence in the disputed sea despite a Hague tribunal ruling against its territorial claims in 2016.
In an interview with the Guardian, Vice Admiral Eduardo Santos recalled telling the Chinese ambassador that it was an accident.
“I said, ‘Well, he was supposed to be on his way (on a mission), and he ran aground.'”
According to Santos, this was to oppose the first stages of China’s “creeping invasion” into areas claimed by the Philippines.
The sinking of the ship in the previously unoccupied St. Thomas sandbar has helped to postpone a possible Chinese occupation a little longer, he said.
The South China Sea is a busy waterway, rich in resources and the subject of one of the world’s most contentious territorial disputes.
The ocean does not belong to any country, except for narrow strips of territorial waters.
But China has long sought to assert its claims to the South China Sea, building and developing small strips of land to extend its influence.
China now claims a vast swathe of the sea as its own – a claim that its neighbours and Western countries like the United States consider baseless.
Tensions between China and the Philippines over the sea, with confrontations on the water becoming increasingly serious.
Earlier this month, a Chinese coast guard vessel – the world’s largest – dropped anchor in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.
In June, the Chinese coast guard seized a Philippine ship, and video shows the sailors being threatened with axes and other “sharp and sharp” weapons.
One expert told BI at the time that China was seeking to “change the status quo by force,” using aggressive but non-lethal measures designed to gradually “wear down” its neighbors.
Other acts of Chinese aggression in the South China Sea this year have included the alleged cyanide poisoning of disputed waters and an apparently intentional collision with a Philippine ship while bombarding it with a water cannon.
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