PROFESSORS at the San Beda University Graduate School of Law said the Philippines should now invoke its Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT) with the United States after the Chinese coast guard reportedly rammed, boarded, and used machetes and axes to damage two Philippine navy boats in a chaotic faceoff that injured Filipino navy personnel at Ayungin (Second Thomas) Shoal in the West Philippine Sea.

'We respectfully submit that the conditions that trigger the application of treaty provisions, particularly those embodied in Articles IV and V of the Mutual Defense Treaty, have been fulfilled,' the San Beda law professors said in a statement issued on Monday.