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Philippines' Teodoro slams China Daily post depicting Filipinos as monkeys
Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro on Thursday night scored China Daily for depicting Filipinos as monkeys in a Facebook post that criticized the arbitral award that invalidated China’s claims in the West Philippine Sea.
The Chinese newspaper’s social media post was made on July 10, two days before the 10th anniversary of the historic decision by the Permanent Court of Arbitration that upheld the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.
“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 in a statement.
The China Daily post featured a video showing a monkey dressed in a barong tagalog and a salakot and being dictated on what to say by what appeared to be American and Japanese characters.
It also showed the monkey being sprayed with a water cannon on the high seas after being given the arbitral award.
“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 Philippines was justified “in our policy of no Ministerial or AFP defense engagements or contacts with the CCP or any of 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,” Teodoro said.
“Pilipinas huwag magpalinlang! Ang nalilinlang ay nasisiil,” he added.
(Philippines, don't let yourself be deceived! Those who are deceived get oppressed.)
Rear Admiral Jay Tarriela, Philippine Coast Guard spokesperson on West Philippine Sea Concerns, retweeted the Defense Department's statement on X and in a separate post added, "Racism has no place in this day and age — and racism meant to belittle another race deserves nothing but condemnation. Filipinos are not monkeys!"
— Jay Tarriela (@jaytaryela) July 16, 2026
–NB/BM, GMA News
