The hitting of a Filipino fishing boat by a Chinese vessel at midnight of June 9 in Recto Bank in the West Philippine Sea was not an armed attack on the Philippines, hence not covered by the Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT) with the United States, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said yesterday. “The MDT provides for an attack, an armed attack. This one is not an armed attack, this is purely maybe an accident, accident only,” he told reporters at the weekly Kapihan sa Manila Bay news forum. On Sen. Panfilo Lacson’s proposal to seek help from the United States in patrolling the West Philippine Sea, Lorenzana said he finds it unacceptable as this could be considered militarization.

Punongbayan, M., & Romero, P. (2019, June 20). ‘No need to invoke MDT in Recto Bank incident’. The Philippine Star, p. 2.