SAN NARCISO, May 3 -- All Chinese actions in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) are outright violations of international law, a ranking Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) insisted on Friday.

Commodore Jay Tarriela, PCG spokesperson for the WPS, said maritime security scholars used to call China's moves as grey zone tactics, or efforts to take control using coercive actions that are shy of armed conflict, but beyond normal diplomatic, economic, and other activities.

"Ang contribution ng ating (The contributions of our) transparency strategy exposed Chinese illegal actions," he said on the sidelines of the National Security Cluster Communications of the "Bagong Pilipinas" (New Philippines) media engagement and workshop at Philippine Merchant Marine ...