The alleged incident happened on May 19 at Second Thomas Shoal in the Spratly Islands, where Filipino troops are garrisoned on a grounded navy vessel to assert Manila’s claims to the waters.Beijing claims almost the entire South China Sea and there has been a series of confrontations involving Chinese and Philippine vessels near contested reefs, often during Philippine resupply missions to Second Thomas Shoal.
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The Filipino troops were able to retrieve most of the items that were airdropped that day, the military said. Philippine resupply missions were usually by sea, but Brawner said last month they did an airdrop to avoid “resistance” and “harassment”.