The Philippines on Wednesday condemned the "cowardly action" of a suspected Chinese fishing vessel accused of abandoning a Filipino fishing crew after a collision in the East Vietnam Sea, while thanking a Vietnamese ship for coming to the fishermen’s aid. The Chinese ship on Sunday hit a Filipino craft anchored near Reed Bank causing it to sink and leaving 22 crewmen "to the mercy of the elements," Philippine defense secretary Delfin Lorenzana was quoted by AFP as saying in a statement on Wednesday. "We condemn in the strongest terms the cowardly action of the suspected Chinese fishing vessel and its crew for abandoning the Filipino crew," Lorenzana said. "This is not the expected action from a responsible and friendly people." Lorenzana called for an investigation into the collision, and for "diplomatic steps" to be taken toward preventing a repeat of the incident. However, Philippine defense department spokesman Arsenio Andolong told AFP the agency had yet to confirm whether the vessel was Chinese-registered, adding it was the Filipino fishermen who identified it as such. The defense chief also thanked the crew of a Vietnamese fishing vessel in the vicinity which he said brought the Filipinos to safety. Members of Philippine Marines are pictured in the East Vietnam Sea on March 29, 2014. Photo: Reuters Like the Philippines, Vietnam has partial claims over the East Vietnam Sea, where Beijing has illegally built artificial islands with military facilities and airstrips. Reed Bank is about 150 kilometers off the Philippine island of Palawan. Although Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has largely set aside the bitter dispute with Beijing over the resource-rich waterway, Manila does sometimes protest against Chinese action in the East Vietnam Sea. Competing claims over the East Vietnam Sea is a point of regional contention because trillions of dollars of goods passes through it, and rich petroleum reserves are thought to sit …
