What made a Chinese vessel come into contact with a Filipino fishing boat and cause it to sink at midnight on Sunday in Recto Bank was no accident but a deliberate maneuver to ram the smaller craft, Philippine Navy chief Vice Admiral Robert Empedrad said yesterday. “The Filipino vessel was anchored. So when based on the International Rules of the Road, it had the privilege because it could not evade… The ship was rammed. This is not a normal incident. The boat was anchored,” Empedrad said in an interview during a Naval symposium at the Manila Hotel. Empedrad issued the statement in response to Beijing’s claim that what happened to F/B Gemvir 1 was just an ordinary maritime accident. Even some Philippine officials had maintained the sinking of the fishing boat in Philippine waters was not intentional, and may not have been necessarily caused by a Chinese vessel.

Laude, J. & Macairan, E. (2019, June 15). Phl fishing boat was rammed - Navy chief. The Philippine Star, pp. 1, 6.