By Neil Jerome Morales
MANILA (Reuters) -The Philippines and China traded accusations on Saturday following an encounter between their aircraft over a contested area of the South China Sea.
The Philippine military strongly condemned "dangerous and provocative actions" by China's air force, while the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) said it acted in a professional and legal manner.
It is the first time the Philippines has complained of dangerous actions by Chinese aircraft, as opposed to navy or coast guard vessels, since President Ferdinand Marcos Jr took office in 2022.
Two Chinese Air Force aircraft executed a dangerous manoeuvre and dropped flares in the path of a Philippine air force aircraft conducting a routine patrol over the Scarborough Shoal on Thursday morning, the military said in a statement.
It "endangered the lives of our personnel undertaking maritime security operations recently within Philippine maritime zones", said Philippines armed forces chief Romeo Brawner, adding that the Chinese aircraft interfered with lawful flight operations and violated international law on aviation safety.
The Philippine aircraft, "despite repeated warnings from China, insisted on illegally intruding into the airspace of Huangyan Island", disrupting training activities, the Southern Theater Command of the Chinese PLA said on Saturday.
China's naval and air forces carried out identification, tracking, warning, and expulsion in accordance with the law, it added.
"The on-site operation was professional, abided by norms, legitimate and legal," the PLA said, urging the Philippines to stop what it called infringement and provocation.
Filipino fishermen frequent the Scarborough Shoal, one of two flashpoints in a longstanding maritime rivalry with China. Beijing on Wednesday organised a combat patrol near the shoal, which Manila calls Bajo de Masinloc and China seized in 2012 and refers to as Huangyan island.
Beijing claims almost all of the South China Sea, a conduit for more than $3 trillion of annual shipborne commerce, including parts claimed by the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei.
China rejects a 2016 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague that Beijing's expansive claims had no basis under international law.
The Philippines in May accused Chinese fishermen of destroying the environment at Scarborough by cyanide fishing, harvesting giant clams and other protected creatures, and scarring coral reefs, which China denied.