<\/p>\n
THE Philippine government on Monday refuted reports by Chinese state media claiming that the China Coast Guard had taken control of Sandy Cay near Pag-Asa Island, calling them inaccurate and misleading.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n In a press briefing, Presidential Communications Undersecretary and Palace Press Officer Claire Castro cited information from National Security Council (NSC) Assistant Director General (ADG) Jonathan Malaya that the Inter-Agency Maritime Operation (IAMO) recently conducted a routine visit to Sandy Cay, Pag-asa Cay 2 in particular, and the surrounding waters of Cay 1 and Cay 3.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n She said the IAMO team completed the mission without incident, clearly contradicting any narrative that Sandy Cay was seized.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Sandy Cay is a maritime feature of a low bank or reef of coral, rock, and sand located in the Spratly Islands near Pag-Asa Island in the Spratlys.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cNakausap po natin si ADG Jonathan Malaya. Ayon po sa kanya, kahapon lamang po, ang inter-agency maritime operation ay nagsagawa ng pagbisita\u2014isang routine and lawful exercise\u2014dito po sa maritime domain natin,\u201d Castro said.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n During the briefing, Castro reaffirmed the Marcos administration\u2019s unwavering commitment to defending the country\u2019s maritime rights and territorial integrity.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cAsahan po natin ang walang alinlangang dedikasyon ng Pangulong Marcos na ipaglaban ang ating karapatan sa ating teritoryo, lalo na sa West Philippine Sea,\u201d Castro said.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cTuluy-tuloy pa rin po ang pagprotekta sa lahat ng karapatan ng bansa na naaayon sa international law, ngunit may paniniguro na ito ay para sa kapayapaan at katatagan,\u201d she said.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Palace assured the public that the Philippines will continue to assert and defend its sovereign rights in accordance with international law.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" THE Philippine government on Monday refuted reports by Chinese state media claiming that the China Coast Guard had taken control of Sandy Cay near Pag-Asa<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13436,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13435"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13435"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13435\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13437,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13435\/revisions\/13437"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}