MANILA — Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. denounced a racist social media post by Chinese state-run newspaper China Daily portraying Filipinos as monkeys, calling it a disgraceful piece of propaganda that exposes Beijing’s contempt for the Filipino people and its inability to defend its claims in the West Philippine Sea through law and reason.
The controversial Facebook post, published on July 10 ahead of the 10th anniversary of the landmark 2016 arbitral ruling, featured a monkey wearing a Barong Tagalog and salakot being manipulated by characters resembling Americans and Japanese. The video also showed the monkey carrying a copy of the arbitral award before being blasted by a water cannon at sea.
“The post of China Daily depicting the Filipinos as monkeys is a revealing insight into what the Chinese communist apparatus thinks of the Filipino people,” Teodoro said.
He said the video ridiculed the 2016 arbitral award, which invalidated China’s sweeping claims in the West Philippine Sea, while glorifying violence against Filipinos.
“This mockery of the lawful 2016 Arbitral Award and the video’s glorification of violence against the Filipino people and soldiers expose the moral and intellectual bankruptcy of China’s propaganda machine,” Teodoro said.
“Such contemptible propaganda is a disgrace to any State that claims to exercise responsible regional leadership. It reveals the weakness of a government that resorts to racism, threats, and manufactured hatred because it has utterly failed to defend its ridiculous claims through reason, evidence, or law,” he added.
Teodoro said the incident further validated the Philippines’ decision to suspend ministerial- and Armed Forces of the Philippines-level defense engagements with the Chinese Communist Party and its agencies.
“The recent spate of schizophrenic behavior of the Chinese Communist Party is too clear to disregard or to ignore. This latest act of dehumanization further reveals them as neither a secure and confident actor nor a trustworthy neighbor,” he said. “Pilipinas huwag magpalinlang! Ang nalilinlang ay nasisiil.”
Philippine Coast Guard spokesperson for West Philippine Sea concerns Rear Admiral Jay Tarriela likewise condemned the post, stressing that racism has no place in modern society.
“Racism has no place in this day and age — and racism meant to belittle another race deserves nothing but condemnation. Filipinos are not monkeys!” Tarriela wrote on X.
The controversy erupted just days after the Philippines commemorated the 10th anniversary of the Permanent Court of Arbitration ruling, which upheld the country’s maritime entitlements in the West Philippine Sea and rejected China’s expansive claims under its so-called nine-dash line./PN
