PHILIPPINE Coast Guard spokesman Jay Tristan Tarriela on Sunday said China, not him, should be held accountable for a racist video depicting Filipinos as monkeys, rejecting Senator Robinhood C. Padilla’s claim that his earlier caricature of Chinese President Xi Jinping contributed to “wartime propaganda.”
“The racist video was made by China, and the ‘white people’ you are talking about have nothing to do with it,” Mr. Tarriela said in a Facebook post in Filipino. “What we should condemn is China, because China made and spread this racist video.”
He said he was surprised that Mr. Padilla appeared to blame him instead of China, arguing that the senator linked the Chinese-made video to a caricature he used during a university lecture.
Mr. Tarriela said the caricature was presented as satire in an academic setting and was never intended as wartime propaganda or for public release.
Mr. Padilla’s office did not immediately reply to a BusinessWorld request for comment sent via Viber.
The controversy arose after an artificial intelligence (AI)-generated video circulated by Chinese media portrayed Filipinos as monkeys, prompting condemnation from Philippine officials and the public.
Defense Secretary Gilberto C. Teodoro, Jr. on July 16 denounced the video, saying it reflected what he described as the Chinese Communist Party’s view of Filipinos.
He said the depiction of Filipinos as monkeys, along with its mockery of the 2016 arbitral ruling and glorification of violence against Filipinos and Philippine troops, exposed China’s “moral and intellectual bankruptcy.”
Mr. Teodoro said the incident reinforced the government’s decision to suspend ministerial level and Armed Forces of the Philippines engagements with the Chinese Communist Party and its agencies, adding that the latest act of “dehumanization” showed China was “neither a secure and confident actor nor a trustworthy neighbor.”
Separately, lawmakers condemned the AI-generated video while renewing calls for an independent foreign policy amid tensions in the South China Sea.
Party-list Reps. Renee M. Co and Antonio L. Tinio described the video as racist propaganda aimed at undermining the Philippines’ assertion of its sovereign rights.
Ms. Co said the imagery sought to belittle Filipino resistance to China’s actions but also echoed racist depictions used during the American colonial period. She urged the public to reject interference from both China and the US.
Mr. Tinio called on Beijing to apologize and remove the video, while urging the Philippine government to pursue an independent foreign policy free from the influence of both China and the US.
The Chinese foreign ministry has denied that the video was produced by the Chinese government. — Pexcel John Bacon
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