Wow, must be some rogue pirate vessel, because any formal government ship, especially one flying a bright red flag, would be too easy to identify. It’s a mystery. /s

Terrible. Getting caught up in a geopolitical fight while you’re just trying to eke out a living. Hope their families find peace.

The area has witnessed increasingly frequent run-ins between Philippine vessels and tiny wooden fishing boats against much larger Chinese coast guard ships and what Manila says are shadowy Chinese “maritime militia” fishing vessels.

Wooden fishing boats vs. steel hull ships tells you everything about who’s the aggressor. Hope they find a resolution.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Three Filipino fishermen have died after an “unidentified commercial vessel” allegedly rammed their fishing boat near Scarborough Shoal, the Philippine coast guard said Wednesday, compounding tensions in a region of the disputed South China Sea that is already a flashpoint.

The Philippine coast guard said it was working to confirm what type of vessel was involved in the incident but added the boat that caused the collision was “foreign”.

The maritime collision occurred around 4:20 a.m. on Monday, a crew member of FFB Dearyn, the Philippine vessel that was struck, told authorities, according to a coast guard statement.

The South China Sea is a 1.3 million-square-mile waterway that is vital to international trade, with an estimated third of global shipping worth trillions of dollars passing through each year.

Bracketed by China and several Southeast Asian nations, parts of the sea are claimed by multiple governments, with Beijing asserting ownership over almost all of the waterway, in defiance of an international court ruling.

Scarborough shoal, known as Bajo de Masinloc in the Philippines and Huangyan Island in China – is a small but strategic reef and fishing ground 130 miles (200 kilometers) west of Luzon that has been a flashpoint for tensions between Manila and Beijing.

The original article contains 380 words, the summary contains 205 words. Saved 46%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

Turns out, it was a Korean vessel. Thanks for the manufactured outrage, everyone!

The fact that they’re not willing to say anything more specific than “foreign vessel” is actually rather interesting. Usually, the Philippines would be clamouring to get another dig in at China, but either they actually don’t know in this case (lol) or Taiwan/Vietnam are getting into the picture at Scarborough Shoal (and expanding beyond the Spratlys)… if so, the Filipino boat might have just gotten caught in the crossfire.

It could also be retaliation for this, but then I’d imagine Filipino rhetoric should be far more aggressive than it is.