MANILA, Philippines — Philippine Coast Guard spokesperson for the West Philippine Sea (WPS) Rear Adm. Jay Tarriela has again hit back at Senator Robin Padilla, saying the lawmaker continues to use the caricature issue as a “convenient” excuse for China following a Chinese media outlet’s mockery of the landmark arbitral ruling.
Tarriela made the statement after Padilla published a series of Facebook posts claiming that the Coast Guard official “drew first blood,” which “escalated into wartime propaganda.”
In a separate post, Tarriela responded that the government’s transparency initiatives in the West Philippine Sea are not equivalent to wartime propaganda but are meant “to expose Chinese aggression and harassment.”
Their exchange came after Chinese media outlet China Daily published a social media post mocking the 2016 arbitral award and using an AI-generated animation portraying Filipinos as monkeys.
READ: Tarriela to Padilla: WPS transparency is not ‘wartime propaganda’
Referring to the video when he addressed Tarriela in a post, Padilla asked: “[A]ren’t we all monkeys of different colors in the eyes of white colonizers/supremacists?”
Tarriela said the remark was an insult to the 26 million Filipinos who voted for the senator, as it suggested that they accepted the idea that Filipinos are indeed monkeys. He noted that the issue was not about the perspective of white supremacists but that of the Chinese government. In response, Padilla said the monkey reference pertained to the Chinese media.
Padilla accused Tarriela of starting the “wartime propaganda” with his caricature of Chinese President Xi Jinping. In January, Tarriela used what apparent AI-generated images of Xi during a university talk in which he was seen addressing his audience on “Why China Remains a Bully.”
While the senator did not name Tarriela in his latest post, he reaffirmed his remark, saying that “demeaning caricatures” are used in wartime propaganda.
He wrote: “You aimed water cannons at us and splattered us with your saliva instead of using them against the China Coast Guard who continually humiliate us.”
READ: Padilla: China Daily’s ‘racist’ video unacceptable
“My goodness, what are you thinking? I will not react to your bullying! You can’t even stand up to the China Coast Guard, and yet you’re going after me! You are barking at us when you can’t even face your adversary point-blank,” Padilla added.
In his latest Facebook post, Tarriela said that he realized that the senator was blaming him from the racist video and not China.
He said Padilla’s claim that the reason behind the existence of the video was his caricature of Xi, emphasizing that he did not mean to use his university lecture as “wartime propaganda.” He added that the lecture was not intended to be satire and to be publicized as it was a lecture.
“Everyone has long since moved on from this caricature issue from January, but you are still using it as a convenient excuse for China,” Tarriela wrote.
READ: China cries ‘slander’ over Tarriela’s use of altered Xi images
Tarriela reiterated that he is not an enemy as he is a fellow Filipino, adding that the Filipinos should not be portrayed as monkeys. With this, he said that he does not intend to lash out at the senator.
“I am not attacking you — DON’T BE CONFUSED. You were the one who named me and you were the one who said that we are all monkeys. Remember your own line, Mr. Senator: “Aren’t we all monkeys of different colors?”
The AI-generated video drew widespread criticism among government officials, with the Department of Foreign Affairs announcing that it formally filed a diplomatic protest against China over the video. /dl
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