President Ferdinand Marcos said Thursday the Philippines will not be "cowed into silence" by Beijing after confrontations in the South China Sea that injured Filipino troops and damaged vessels.

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos inspecting a high mobility artillery rocket system on April 26, 2023.

Marcos's remarks came as China blamed the Philippines for raising tensions in the hotly contested waterway, which Beijing claims almost entirely.

Beijing and Manila have a long history of maritime territorial disputes in the South China Sea and there have been repeated confrontations between their vessels near disputed reefs in recent months.

Manila summoned a Chinese envoy over the latest incident near Second Thomas Shoal in the Spratly Islands, which occurred last Saturday during a Philippine mission to resupply troops garrisoned on the BRP Sierra Madre, a grounded navy ship.

The Philippines said the China Coast Guard blocked its supply vessel and damaged it with water cannon, injuring three soldiers.

The China Coast Guard has defended its actions, describing them as "lawful regulation, interception and expulsion" of a foreign vessel that "tried to forcefully intrude" into Chinese waters.

Beijing has urged Manila to "pull back from the brink" and stop "provoking trouble at sea", but Marcos hit back on Thursday.

"We seek no conflict with any nation, more so nations that purport and claim to be our friends but we will not be cowed into silence, submission, or subservience," Marcos said in a statement.

He said the Philippines would respond with a "countermeasure package that is proportionate, deliberate, and reasonable in the face of the open, unabating, and illegal, coercive, aggressive, and dangerous attacks by agents of the China Coast Guard and the Chinese Maritime Militia".

"Filipinos do not yield," Marcos said.

- 'A dangerous road' -

China claims almost the entire South China Sea, brushing off rival claims from other countries, including the Philippines, as well as an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis.

Among the claimants, China has been the most assertive, deploying ships to patrol the waters and building artificial islands which it has militarised.

In a statement Thursday entitled "China Will Not Allow the Philippines to Act Wilfully", Beijing's defence ministry blamed "the provocations by the Philippine side" for the increased tensions over the South China Sea.

"Relying on the backing of external forces... the Philippine side has frequently infringed on rights and provoked and created trouble at sea, as well as spreading false information to mislead the international community's perception of the issue, which is, so to speak, going further and further down a dangerous road," it added.

Second Thomas Shoal is about 200 kilometres (120 miles) from the western Philippine island of Palawan, and more than 1,000 kilometres from China's nearest major landmass, Hainan island.

- US repeats 'ironclad' commitment -

The United States, a treaty ally of the Philippines, has led a chorus of support for the Southeast Asian country in response to Chinese actions.

Marcos said the international community had "offered to help us on what the Philippines requires to protect and secure our sovereignty, sovereign rights, and jurisdiction while ensuring peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific."

"I have given them our requirements and we have been assured that they will be addressed," he said, without providing details.

His statement came after US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin repeated the United States' "ironclad" commitment to its longtime ally in a call with his Filipino counterpart Gilberto Teodoro on Wednesday.

Last Saturday's incident followed similar confrontations near Second Thomas Shoal earlier in the month.

Manila said China Coast Guard ships caused two collisions with Philippine boats and water cannoned one of them, leaving four Filipino crew members injured.

Philippine leader warns of countermeasures in response to Chinese aggression at sea

In this screen grab from video provided by the Armed Forces of the Philippines, a Chinese coast guard ship tries to block a Philippine resupply vessel Unaizah May 4 as it approaches Second Thomas Shoal, locally called Ayungin shoal, at the disputed South China Sea on Saturday, March 23, 2024. (Armed Forces of the Philippines.

The Philippine president said Thursday that his government would take action against what he called dangerous attacks by the Chinese coast guard and suspected militia ships in the disputed South China Sea, saying “Filipinos do not yield.”

Ferdinand Marcos Jr. did not provide details of the actions his government would take in the succeeding weeks but said these would be “proportionate, deliberate and reasonable in the face of the open, unabating, and illegal, coercive, aggressive and dangerous attacks by agents of the China coast guard and Chinese maritime militia."

Philippine Coast Guard, Filipino scientists reach sandbars called Sandy Cay at the disputed South China Sea on Thursday March 21, 2024. Chinese coast guard ships, backed by a military helicopter, tried to dangerously block but failed to stop two Philippine government vessels carrying scientists from reaching two barren sandbars called Sandy Cay in the disputed South China Sea, Philippine officials said Friday.

“We seek no conflict with any nation,” Marcos wrote on X, formerly Twitter, but said the Philippines would not be “cowed into silence.”

Marcos's warning is the latest sign of the escalating disputes between China and the Philippines in the contested waters that have caused minor collisions between the coast guard and other vessels of the rival claimant nations, sparked a war of words and strained relations.

China and the Philippines, as well as Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei, have overlapping claims in the resource-rich and busy waterway, where a bulk of the world’s commerce and oil transits.

Chinese officials in Manila or Beijing did not immediately respond to Marcos’s public warning, which he issued during Holy Week — one of the most sacred religious periods in the largely Roman Catholic nation.

Marcos said he issued the statement after meeting top Philippine defense and national security officials, who submitted their recommendations. He added without elaborating that he has also been in constant talks with “allies, partners and friends in the international community," who he said had offered to help the Philippines protect its sovereignty.

In the latest hostilities on Saturday, the Chinese coast guard used water cannons that injured several Philippine navy crewmen and heavily damaged their wooden supply boat near the disputed Second Thomas Shoal. The cannon blast was so strong it threw a crewman off the floor but he hit a wall instead of plunging into the sea, Philippine military officials said.

The Philippine government summoned a Chinese embassy diplomat in Manila to convey its “strongest protest” against China. Beijing accused the Philippine vessels of intruding into Chinese territorial waters, warning Manila not to “play with fire” and saying China would continue to take actions to defend its sovereignty.

The United States condemned the actions by the Chinese coast guard and renewed a warning that it is obligated to come to the aid of the Philippines under a 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty if Philippine forces, aircraft and ships come under an armed attack, including anywhere in the South China Sea.

Beijing has warned Washington to stay away from what it says is a purely Asian dispute.