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

Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo said the Philippines filed its latest diplomatic protest against China after its aircraft flew dangerously close to a Philippine aircraft over the Scarborough Shoal.

But Manalo 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.

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 last February 18.”

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.