THE United States and five other countries condemned the dangerous actions by China against 'lawful' Philippine maritime operations in the West Philippine Sea Monday that left two Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) ships damaged.

Australia, Canada, Japan, Germany and the United Kingdom — through their respective embassies in the Philippines — turned to X, formerly Twitter, to express deep concern over the incident, which took place early dawn of August 19, while Manila contemplated filing a case against China before the United Nations.