DEFENSE Secretary Gilberto “Gibo” Teodoro Jr. was among the first to slam China for the China Daily video posted on Facebook depicting a caricature of a monkey dressed in a barong, pushed into a karaoke stage by caricatures of hands of the United States and Japan, followed shortly by voiceovers ordering the monkey to start singing. Instead of crooning about the 2016 arbitral award, the monkey sings an attempt by “we” (meaning it, the US and Japan) to bypass China in maritime delimitation talks. With a voiceover ringing, “wrong song,” the US and Japanese hands pull the monkey off the stage and hurl it into the air over the sea where it gets blasted by water cannon.
Teodoro’s reaction to the video was instantaneous, describing it as a slur to Filipinos for calling them monkeys.
We’re hard-pressed to find an explanation for this reaction.
While America and Japan are immediately identified by their respective flag emblems on the caricatures of their hands, no such mark in whatever of the elements of the video is identified as Filipino. All the more is there no reason for one to believe Filipinos are being alluded to, there being only one monkey in the video.
That Teodoro feels being defiled at the mere sight of the monkey is an interesting subject of study.
In psychology, it is called archetypal inflation (coined by Carl Jung) which happens when a person’s ego becomes too small to hold the vast, unconscious energy of a universal symbol. The person loses his personal identity. He believes he is literally the symbol itself (such as a god, hero or monkey indeed).
If this Jung analysis were true with Teodoro in his confrontation with the video, then it is a giveaway of what actual monkeying he has been doing in his life’s conduct.
But in the first place, the video is mistaken for using the image of a monkey as a symbol of stoogery. In general literary usage, being a monkey means being playful and tricky.
Be that as it may, let’s play along with what the video intends to mean by monkeying — being a stooge.
Which is what Teodoro pictures himself as being, in Jung’s term, overwhelmed to the extent of believing he is literally it.
So, upon confrontation with the video, it is a matter of course that Teodoro should instantly believe he is alluded to by the monkey caricature.
What monkeying could he immediately have recalled?
Certainly, it could be his forsaking of his Filipino citizenship. Remember that from the time of his loss at the presidential elections of 2010, he had been unheard of in the Philippine scene. Actually, he migrated to Malta, a member of the European Union, where in exchange for business investment perks, he forsook his Filipino nationality in exchange for citizenship.
Is there any worse monkeying a man could make than abandoning his motherland in place of another?
It took the earnest sleuthing by The Manila Times to uncover this fact.
And yet come the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., Teodoro had no qualms doing another nationality monkeying by reacquiring Filipino citizenship in order to become the secretary of National Defense; he held that post under the Gloria Macapagal Arroyo administration in 2007.
While every Filipino early on in his kindergarten years is taught to take to heart the Panatang Makabayan, this supposed high-educated intellectual boasting of topping the bar in 1989 and acquiring a Master of Laws at Harvard, appears to monkey with the panata at every chance.
“Iniibig ko ang Pilipinas/Aking lupang sinilangan...”
As secretary of National Defense, Teodoro’s performance has been evidently geared mainly for advancing America’s strategic designs in the Asia-Pacific. Note how he turns out now as the leading mouthpiece for promoting the supposed victory of the Philippines against China in the 2016 arbitral award. As a bar topnotcher and a Harvard Master of Laws, it should be easy for him to realize that the award is ersatz.
China did not participate in the proceedings.
On the matter of jurisdiction, for instance, the arbitral panel is deemed having violated Part XV, Section 2 (Articles 286-296) as detailed in Annex VII of the Unclos rule on compulsory arbitration, and the panel committed ultra vires by supplying as basis for judgment information not contained in the Philippines’ submissions.
Teodoro should benefit in this regard by availing of the “The South China Sea Arbitration Awards: A critical study” published by the Chinese Society of International Law, Oxford University Press, Vol. 17, No. 2 (2018).
But then again, the hell.
Chances are Teodoro had gotten a copy of the book. Chances are he had read the many legal clarifications it contained on the relevant issues in the ruling.
But as a masters of law, he should be aware that the 2016 Permanent Court of Arbitration Arbitral Awards are not a matter of legalese but as gray zone tactics for advancing the geopolitical interests of America in this part of the Asia-Pacific.
So, be done with good manners and right conduct.
Keep monkeying for America in its strategic conflict with China, which the disputed China Daily video is all about.
Again for instance, what nobody ever realized was that the May 15, 2026 Teodoro raid on the Philippine Sanjia Steel Corp. in Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental, was just the first step in the transformation of that Mindanao region into what could be the most powerful US arms producing hub in the world. A classified document traced to Pentagon’s Defense Logistics Agency discloses American Asia-Pacific strategy, to be implemented by the US IndoPacific Command, which focuses on deterring China by heavily expanding its forward-based refueling hubs, scaling up regional defense manufacturing and investing in unmanned capabilities.
Key components of the strategy include:
- Storing 41 million gallons of fuel by 2028.
- Building of munitions and drone supply chains closer to regional flash points, including plans to build a 30mm ammunition facility in the Philippines, a Japanese-led missile component program and shared drone production standards.
- Overall budget is $2.5 billion.
The Sanjia Steel Corp. is situated within the Philippines Veterans Investment and Development Corp. (Phividec), a 3,000-hectare industrial estate meant for addressing the varied socioeconomic concerns of retired personnel of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. It was established in 2018 at the request of Phividec, thus definitely legit.
Yet on trumped-up charges, 70 Chinese steel specialists were arrested, preparatory to its ultimate closure to the detriment of hundreds of Filipino workers.
So, why would it take no less than the secretary of National Defense to lead in the raid of the company?
It is what the video is all about.
You monkey for the United States, you do its bidding.
The Phividec industrial estate is where the Philippine Sanjia Steel Corp. happens to be.
That is the very spot where the Pentagon had planned a year ago to set up a giant naval base-weapons producing complex.
And who else would it take to lead in seizing the site for the enterprise but the Number One United States monkey in the country?
