\n<\/p>\n
Officials warn cyanide could harm marine life and weaken the reef supporting a grounded warship.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Published On 13 Apr 2026<\/span>13 Apr 2026<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The Philippines says it has discovered cyanide on Chinese boats near a disputed South China Sea atoll, warning the substance could be used for \u201csabotage\u201d against local fish populations.<\/p>\n Security officials from the Philippines said on Monday that laboratory tests confirmed the presence of the toxic substance in bottles seized by the Philippine navy last year at Second Thomas Shoal, a submerged reef in the Spratly Islands of the South China Sea.<\/p>\n list of 4 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n The officials warned that the cyanide could have had serious consequences for marine life and weakened the reef supporting a warship that Manila grounded on the atoll to reinforce its maritime claim.<\/p>\n \u201cWe wish to underscore that the use of cyanide in Ayungin \u200cShoal is a form of sabotage that seeks to kill local fish populations, depriving navy personnel of a vital food source,\u201d Cornelio Valencia, National Security Council spokesperson, told a news conference, using the Philippines\u2019 name for the atoll.<\/p>\n Valencia added that cyanide could damage the reef and \u201cultimately compromise\u201d the warship\u2019s stability.<\/p>\n The Foreign Ministry of China rejected the Philippines\u2019 assertions, calling them a \u201cstunt\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Philippine side illegally harassed the Chinese fishing boats conducting normal fishing, grabbed the fishermen\u2019s living supplies, and staged this so-called cyanide stunt. There is no credibility whatsoever to their story,\u201d spokesperson Guo Jiakun said.<\/p>\n The Philippines has accused China of disrupting resupply missions to \u2060troops on the vessel, including a June 17, 2024, incident that \u2060turned violent and resulted in a Filipino sailor losing a finger.<\/p>\n In December 2025, the Philippines accused Chinese coastguard ships of firing water cannon at Filipino fishermen near the disputed Sabina Shoal, injuring three people and causing \u201csignificant damage\u201d to two fishing vessels.<\/p>\n China has denied allegations of aggressive conduct during such encounters and accused the Philippines of trespassing in its waters.<\/p>\n China and the Philippines held high-level talks last month over the South China Sea, exploring \u2060preliminary steps towards oil and gas cooperation, and confidence-building \u2060measures at sea, including communication between their coastguards.<\/p>\n The Philippine Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Monday that the scope of the coastguard cooperation would be limited, and \u201cdoes not contemplate cooperation in sensitive operational areas\u201d, adding that there \u200chad been no discussions on joint patrols.<\/p>\n China claims nearly all the South China Sea, including areas claimed by Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam.<\/p>\n A 2016 ruling by an international \u200carbitral \u200ctribunal found Beijing\u2019s sweeping claims had no basis under international law, a decision China rejects.<\/p>\n More than $3 trillion in annual ship-borne commerce travels through the key waterway.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Officials warn cyanide could harm marine life and weaken the reef supporting a grounded warship. Published On 13 Apr 202613 Apr 2026 The Philippines says it has discovered cyanide on Chinese boats near a disputed South China Sea atoll, warning the substance could be used for \u201csabotage\u201d against local fish populations. Security officials from the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18805,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia-pacific"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18804\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"