Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana has said provocations in the hotly disputed areas in the South China Sea are coming from the Chinese, who have illegally occupied some features within the Philippine exclusive economic zone (EEZ). Lorenzana was responding to China's claims that the Philippines is doing "illegal provocations" by sending its patrol aircraft over the Spratlys and reefs occupied by Chinese forces. "Illegal provocations? That area is within our EEZ. Their so-called historical rights over an area enclosed by their nine-line doesn’t exist except in their imaginations," he said in a message to reporters on Sunday.

Provocations coming from China, not PH. (2020, August 25). SunStar Davao, p. 4.