Two Chinese ships used water cannons while in pursuit of the BRP Datu Gumbay Piang as it delivered rations to Filipino fishermen near the Beijing-controlled Scarborough Shoal, a Philippine Coast Guard spokesman said in a statement.
The incident is the latest in a series of confrontations between China and the Philippines in the crucial waterway, which Beijing claims almost entirely despite an international ruling that the assertion has no legal basis.
"This aggressive action lasted for about 29 minutes, resulting in significant damage, including shattered glass from the aft window of the bridge" and "damage to the captain's cabin partitions", said Commodore Jay Tarriela.
A crewmember of the Filipino vessel "sustained injuries due to the shattered glass caused by the water cannon", said Tarriela, the coast guard's spokesman for South China Sea issues.
A picture released by the Philippine coast guard showed a man with what appeared to be a lacerated ear.
The China Coast Guard on Tuesday evening released its own statement saying the Philippine ship had "deliberately rammed" a Chinese vessel.
Chinese ships had "taken control measures" on multiple vessels that had "insisted on illegally invading China's territorial waters of Huangyan Dao", China's name for the Scarborough Shoal, they said.
An accompanying video showed the Philippine vessel -- caught between two China Coast Guard ships -- making contact with one of the Chinese ships after it was hit by the water cannon.
Tariella said the Filipino boat later sailed to a "safer position" away from the shoal following the encounter, which caused a short circuit aboard the vessel.
More than 60 percent of global maritime trade passes through the South China Sea.
Last month, a Chinese navy vessel collided with one from its own coast guard while chasing a Philippine patrol boat near Scarborough Shoal.
China seized control of the fish-rich shoal from the Philippines after a lengthy standoff in 2012.
Rubio backs Philippines against 'coercive' sea nature reserve
Washington (AFP) Sept 12, 2025 -
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday backed the Philippines in protesting Beijing's plan for a "nature reserve" on disputed Scarborough Shoal, saying it was part of a "coercive" strategy in the South China Sea.
"The US stands with our Philippine ally in rejecting China's destabilizing plans to establish a 'national nature reserve' at Scarborough Reef," Rubio wrote on X.
"This is yet another coercive attempt to advance China's interests at the expense of its neighbors and regional stability," he wrote.
China on Wednesday announced plans for a reserve to maintain "diversity, stability and sustainability of the natural ecosystem of Huangyan Island," using its term for the contested chain of reefs.
The Philippines said it would issue a protest and charged that China was looking at exerting control rather than protecting the environment.
Scarborough Shoal lies 240 kilometers (150 miles) west of the Philippines' main island of Luzon and nearly 900 kilometres from Hainan, the nearest major Chinese land mass.
China claims almost the entirety of the South China Sea, through which more than 60 percent of global maritime trade passes, despite a 2016 court ruling that said its claims had no basis in international law.
The United States has repeatedly backed the Philippines, its former colony with which it has a defense treaty, despite recent calls by President Donald Trump for strong relations with Beijing.
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