A war of words over the West Philippine Sea (WPS) escalated sharply on Sunday after the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) spokesperson for the WPS, Commodore Jay Tarriela, publicly rebuked a lawmaker over remarks that he and other officials should be sent to the front lines in the event of a war with China.

Tarriela, responding to Sagip Partylist Rep. Paolo Marcoleta’s tirades, vowed to defend the country “anywhere, anytime.”

“Before I address your fearmongering statement — one that unfortunately echoes the narrative pushed by pro-China trolls — let me be clear: I will stand firm and fulfill my selfless patriotic duty to defend our country and our people, anywhere, anytime,” Tarriela wrote on X on Sunday.

The response came after Rep. Marcoleta posted online that Tarriela and “arrogant senators” should be placed at the front of the fighting if China attacks the Philippines.

“If China wages war on us, line up this Coast Guard spokesperson and those arrogant senators at the front of the battle. Let them charge first. Or load them into cannons. Let’s see how brave they are,” he said in Filipino.

Tarriela said it was troubling for a member of Congress to speak in a manner that appeared to wish harm on Filipinos.

“Why threaten our own people in a way that could undermine our resolve to uphold our sovereignty, sovereign rights and maritime jurisdiction in the West Philippine Sea?” he said.

Awareness flight

He also invited Marcoleta and his father, Senator Rodante Marcoleta, to join him on a maritime domain awareness flight and a visit to Pag-asa Island in the Kalayaan Island Group.

“It would be an honor to bond with the Marcoleta father-and-son duo in KIG (Kalayaan Island Group)!” Tarriela wrote, with some netizens reading sarcasm into his invitation.

Earlier this month, during a Commission on Appointments hearing, it was Senator Marcoleta who suggested that the Philippines should give up the Kalayaan Island Group, arguing that its features were “way beyond” the country’s exclusive economic zone.

Senator Marcoleta later said his remarks had been taken out of context.

The dispute drew broader political reactions, with Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo Lacson, writing on X that in geopolitics, information often comes from “technical intelligence and homegrown traitors who are willing to sell their country in exchange for what’s in it for them,” a practice he said is known in intelligence work as “recruitment in place.”

Lacson did not name anyone.

Malacañang sought to distance itself from the escalating rhetoric, saying the Palace and the Department of Foreign Affairs would maintain a diplomatic approach.

Palace Press Officer Claire Castro said lawmakers were free to pursue their own actions, but stressed that the President’s policy remains dialogue and diplomacy with China.

Amid the exchanges, some senators earlier signed a resolution declaring Chinese Ambassador Huang Xilian persona non grata.

UNCLOS cited

Civic leader Jose Antonio Goitia, chairman emeritus of several pro-democracy and sovereignty advocacy groups, backed Tarriela, saying attacks on the Philippine Coast Guard and the Armed Forces undermine the country at a critical time.

“When institutions tasked with defending the Republic are undermined, neutrality ceases to be prudence. It becomes surrender,” Goitia told the DAILY TRIBUNE.

He said Philippine rights in the West Philippine Sea are firmly grounded in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and the 2016 arbitral ruling that invalidated China’s sweeping maritime claims.

“The Philippines does not require separate coordinates to establish its exclusive economic zone. Under UNCLOS, maritime zones arise by operation of law,” Goitia said. “China’s so-called nine-dash line has no legal basis, no standing under international law.”

Casting doubt on settled maritime rights, he warned, weakens the country’s legal position. “Defending what is lawfully ours is not aggression. It is an obligation,” he said.