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"We will not follow the Chinese coast guard and Chinese vessels
down that road," Marcos told reporters, adding the mission of
the Philippine navy and coast guard was to lower tensions, and
there no plans to install water cannons on vessels.
China's embassy in Manila did not immediately respond to a
request for comment.
The Philippines and China have had several confrontations at
disputed atolls in the South China Sea, most notably at the
Second Thomas Shoal.
Last week, Manila protested Beijing's use of water cannons
against Filipino vessels at the submerged reef, describing it as
harassment and "dangerous maneuvers", after a rise in tensions
in recent months.
The Philippines has said such moves were aimed at disrupting
supply missions to Filipino soldiers stationed in a naval ship
there, which Manila deliberately grounded in 1999 to bolster its
maritime claims.
"If the Philippines truly wants to de-escalate the situation in
the South China Sea, it should immediately stop sending ships
... and stop sending supplies to illegally grounded ships," a
spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry said at a regular
press briefing on Monday.
China claims sovereignty over much of the South China Sea, a
conduit for more than $3 trillion of annual ship-borne commerce,
including parts claimed by the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia,
Malaysia and Brunei.
An international tribunal in 2016 said China's expansive claim
had no legal basis, a decision Beijing has rejected.
(Reporting by Neil Jerome Morales and Colleen Howe in Beijing;
Editing by John Mair and Bernadette Baum)
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