The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) denounced on Tuesday the unsafe maneuvers performed by two Chinese fighter jets against a Philippine Air Force (PAF) patrol aircraft over Scarborough Shoal, calling the intercept unprofessional and a threat to aviation safety.
Rear Admiral (res.) Roy Vincent Trinidad, the military spokesman for the West Philippine Sea, confirmed during an online press briefing that two Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) J-16 multi-role fighter jets harassed a PAF C-208 utility aircraft conducting a routine maritime patrol on October 3.
Military flight records indicate that the Chinese fighters closed within 100 meters of the single-engine turboprop plane above the shoal, locally known as Bajo de Masinloc, creating severe wake turbulence and operational risk.
”It is unprofessional,” Trinidad said, noting that while initial field reports logged one foreign interceptor, updated flight surveillance logs confirmed the presence of two J-16 strike fighters during the encounter.
He also said the high-risk air maneuvers reflect a pattern of coercive behavior intended to intimidate Philippine security forces operating within the country’s sovereign jurisdiction.
”It is uncalled for. It is dangerous. It is coercive and it is aggressive. There is no room among professional pilots for actions like this,” Trinidad said.
The spokesperson recalled that the October 3 incident follows a prior dangerous aerial encounter in August 2024, when Chinese fighters executed close-range passes and deployed flares into the flight path of a PAF patrol aircraft over the same maritime area.
”All of these are unprofessional. All of these are dangerous. They are coercive and aggressive. They are not expected of a professional armed force that the PLA claims to be,” Trinidad said.
Despite the intimidation attempt, military leadership commended the PAF flight crew for maintaining composure and completing their surveillance objectives before returning safely to base.
”Their actions were very professional. They were not intimidated. They conducted the mission and they returned safely to base,” Trinidad said.
The military confirmed that formal incident reports and technical tracking data have been submitted to executive agencies to support diplomatic representations against Beijing.
”From the side of the AFP, we have submitted the necessary documents, the details of the incident. This will find its way to the DFA for the appropriate diplomatic actions,” Trinidad said.
He also said such aggressive encounters are calculated to weaken national resolve and impede routine rotation, resupply, and maritime domain awareness operations in sovereign Philippine territory.
”These are designed to intimidate us, to prevent us from patrolling what is legally and rightfully ours. What they are trying to attack is our will or our national resolve,” Trinidad said.
”Activities such as this are made to do a mission kill, to make it more difficult for us to conduct our regular patrols, our RoRes, or our maritime domain awareness flights,” he also said.
The military reaffirmed that operational surveillance flights and maritime security patrols across the West Philippine Sea will continue without disruption.