Consider these three incidents: • June 9, 2019 midnight, Recto Bank off Palawan: a speeding China steel-hulled maritime militia launch trained its lights on an anchored Filipino wooden fishing boat, rammed and sunk it, then switched off the lights, abandoning 22 Filipinos thrown into the cold dark sea; • Aug. 19, 2019, Sibutu Strait, Tawi-Tawi: four China warships entered Philippine territorial waters without prior coordination with the Armed Forces of the Philippines; automatic identification systems turned off, zigzagging instead of on straight path as required when sailing through foreign jurisdiction, and ignoring AFP radio communications; • Feb. 17, 2020, Malampaya Sound off Palawan: A China frigate aimed its gun control director at a Philippine Navy patrol, detected on radar and clearly seen by Filipino sailors – a hostile act since it meant the frigate’s weapon system already was locked in by radar and ready to fire at its target, well within the Philippines’ and outside China’s exclusive economic zone.

Bondoc, J. (2020, July 20). Dangerous to ignore China's 'gray operations' - expert. The Philippine Star, p. 5.