MANILA, Philippines — Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. did not let China’s video parody of the Philippines pass, describing it as a “schizophrenic” and “dehumanizing” behavior of the Chinese government which reveals its true intentions on the Philippines.
On Thursday, state-owned China Daily released an AI-generated video featuring a powerless monkey wearing a Barong Tagalog and traditional native hat on board a wooden ship. The monkey was being forced by two giant hands portrayed as the US and Japan to sing a song against China’s aggression in the West Philippine Sea.
The video also belittled the 2016 South China Sea Arbitral Award as a mere piece of paper.
“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.
Teodoro said such 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.”
Furthermore, the defense chief believes 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.”
Because of his staunch defending of Philippine rights over the West Philippine Sea, Teodoro as well as his family were sanctioned by China barring them from entering the country and its occupied territories.
This however did not deter the defense chief in championing the country’s rights under international law.
Known for his no holds barred expressions, Teodoro said 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.”
As for his countrymen, Teodoro left a reminder.
“Pilipinas huwag magpalinlang! Ang nalilinlang ay nasisiil,” he said.
(Philippines, don’t be fooled. The fooled gets oppressed.)
