A PLA Navy helicopter with a dangerous maneuver during a BFAR maritime domain awareness flight over Bajo de Masinloc. Handout/Philippine Coast Guard

MANILA — The Philippines has filed its latest diplomatic protest against China after some of its air assets flew dangerously close to a Philippine aircraft flying over the Scarborough Shoal, Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo said on Saturday, days after the incident.

“I think we filed last week on the Scarborough. I saw the note verbale last week,” Manalo told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taguig. 

But the Philippine foreign affairs chief declined to say if Manila summoned Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Huang Xilian over the incident, saying that he was out of the country when the incident happened. 

Earlier this week, the Presidential Office for Maritime Concerns decried the “unprofessional and reckless flight maneuvers” of China’s Harbin Z-9 helicopter that “hovered as close as three meters above a BFAR Cessna 208B Grand Caravan EX aircraft conducting a routine maritime domain awareness flight over Bajo de Masinloc on February 18.” 

READ: Philippines to protest 'dangerous' China helicopter maneuvers

Beijing’s action “demonstrated a lack of regard for internationally-accepted norms on good airmanship and flight safety,” the statement read. 

The aerial shadowing was China’s latest aggression in the West Philippines Sea, an area that falls well within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.