Ayungin Shoal is a low-tide elevation within the Philippine EEZ and continental shelf, as conclusively ruled by the 2016 Arbitral Award. BRP Sierra Madre is a commissioned Philippine Navy vessel lawfully stationed there. There is nothing “illegal” about a sovereign state’s presence in its own maritime zones — only about a foreign coast guard operating 600 nautical miles from its nearest coast.
Let us also be clear about what China calls “humanitarian”: the personnel evacuated by the Philippine Coast Guard were injured because a China Coast Guard crew member struck a Filipino sailor on the head with a wooden baton during an illegal, coercive, aggressive, and deceptive intrusion within 20 yards of LS57. China did not “permit” a medical evacuation. China caused the need for one.
