Philippine Navy officers injured by a China Coast Guard (CCG) water cannon attack were honoured at a hospital in the Philippines.

The bandaged crew were visited by top officials of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) at the Camp Ricarte Station Hospital in Puerto Princesa, Palawan, on March 26.

AFP Chief General Romeo Brawner Jr. conferred honours to the men and pinned medals onto their blue hospital scrubs.

The officers had been onboard the Philippine Coast Guard's Unaizah May 4 ship when it was bombarded with Chinese Coast Guard water cannons during a resupply mission in the South China Sea on March 23.

The high-pressure streams had 'severely damaged' the vessel and injured the crew inside.

The Unaizah May 4 is the same Philippine vessel that was blasted with water cannons by the CCG earlier this month, injuring four Filipino crew members.

It was bringing supplies to Filipino soldiers at the military outpost BRP Sierra Madre in the Second Thomas Shoal when the attack occurred.

The China Coast Guard said in a statement that it took 'regulatory actions' against the Philippine vessels entering the area 'illegally'.

Communist China currently lays claim over almost the entire South China Sea, one of the world's busiest sea lanes. But a United Nations-backed tribunal in 2016 deemed its claims groundless.