MANILA — Rear Adm. Jay Tarriela defended the Philippine Coast Guard’s transparency campaign in the West Philippine Sea after Senator Robin Padilla accused the initiative of being “wartime propaganda.”
According to Tarriela, the campaign exists to record and publicize incidents involving Chinese harassment of Filipino fishermen and government vessels, not to manufacture conflict.
The exchange intensified following the release of an AI-generated video by
China Daily
that depicted Filipinos as monkeys while ridiculing the 2016 arbitral award on the South China Sea.
Tarriela urged senators who criticized his caricature of Chinese President Xi Jinping to instead call on Beijing to apologize for the video.
“We do not create the incidents; we only document them,” Tarriela said, emphasizing that the transparency initiative was designed to expose acts of aggression and harassment in the disputed waters.
He further argued that accepting the video’s portrayal of Filipinos would be an insult to the millions of citizens represented by elected officials.
“This was produced and circulated by Chinese state media itself,” Tarriela said. “Filipinos should not accept being portrayed as monkeys.”
The PCG spokesperson stressed that defending the dignity of Filipinos was a matter of national respect and future generations should not inherit such degrading labels.
Padilla, however, maintained that Tarriela’s caricature of Xi had triggered the escalation.
“This escalation into wartime propaganda was your creation,” the senator said in a Facebook post.
Padilla also remarked that different Asian peoples had historically been categorized by white colonizers according to skin color, suggesting that Filipinos, Chinese, and Japanese shared a broader racial relationship.
The controversial AI-generated video has been condemned by lawmakers and government officials across the political spectrum. The Department of Foreign Affairs has lodged a formal diplomatic protest, describing the material as a racist disinformation campaign that was deeply offensive to Filipinos.
Both Tarriela and Padilla continue to trade public statements as the dispute adds another layer of tension to the ongoing debate over the Philippines’ approach to the West Philippine Sea issue.
ia/xf
