Metro Manila, Philippines – Senator Robin Padilla and Philippine Coast Guard spokesperson for the West Philippine Sea Commodore Jay Tarriela exchanged sharp words Friday, July 17, over China Daily’s controversial depiction of Filipinos as monkeys, with the senator accusing the Coast Guard official of fueling “wartime propaganda.”
Padilla criticized Tarriela’s condemnation of the Chinese state-run outlet, saying the coast guard transparency initiative had escalated tensions.
“Mr. Tarriela, it was you who drew first blood. This escalation into wartime propaganda was your genius creation,” Padilla said.
Addressing China’s controversial content, the senator said Filipinos, Chinese, and Japanese are all viewed as “monkeys of different colors” by white supremacists.
“As for the Chinese media, aren’t we all monkeys of different colors in the eyes of white colonizers and white supremacists?” he said.
Padilla further said responding to the issue in the same manner would mean abandoning the country’s Asian and Austronesian heritage.
Tarriela rejected the senator’s remarks, insisting that the transparency initiative merely documents Chinese actions in the West Philippine Sea.
“Our transparency initiative is not wartime propaganda. It is simply a means to expose Chinese aggression and harassment, particularly against our Filipino fishermen and our PCG and BFAR vessels,” Tarriela said.
“We do not create incidents. We only document them,” he added.
Tarriela also took issue with Padilla’s suggestion that Filipinos should accept the portrayal.
“I believe it is an insult to the more than 26 million Filipinos who voted for you that you accepted we are monkeys,” he said in Filipino.
He said the offensive imagery came from China itself, not from the perspective of western countries.
“This is not in the eyes of white supremacists. It is from the perspective of the Chinese government because they produced and circulated that video,” Tarriela said.
“As a Filipino, I will never accept that my race is made up of monkeys, and I will never accept that future generations of Filipinos will be called monkeys,” he added.
“The true way to respect our people is to defend them, not to accept the insult,” Tarriela said.
The exchange followed the government filing of a diplomatic protest against China over AI-generated videos and editorial cartoons published by China Daily, which the Philippine government described as racist, demeaning and unacceptable.
The DFA has demanded that the content be taken down.
