Philippine Senator Robin Padilla and Coast Guard spokesperson Rear Admiral Jay Tarriela traded fresh public barbs on Saturday over the government's messaging on the South China Sea dispute, extending a row that erupted after China released an AI-generated video portraying Filipinos as monkeys.

On 10 July, Chinese state-run newspaper China Daily released an AI-generated video that portrayed Filipinos as monkeys while referencing the 2016 arbitral ruling that invalidated China’s sweeping claims in the South China Sea. The Philippine government condemned the material as “demeaning, dehumanizing, and racist” and filed a diplomatic protest demanding its removal.

Tarriela, who has been one of the most visible figures behind the Philippine Coast Guard’s public disclosure of maritime confrontations with Chinese vessels, rejected Padilla’s criticism of Manila’s messaging campaign.

“Senator Robin Padilla, with all due respect, our transparency initiative is not wartime propaganda. It is simply a means to expose Chinese aggression and harassment — particularly against our Filipino fishermen and our PCG and BFAR vessels. We do not create the incidents; we only document them,” Tarriela said.

He accused Padilla of minimizing the insult caused by the Chinese video. “Secondly, I believe it is an insult to the more than 26 million Filipinos who voted for you na tinanggap ninyo po na unggoy tayo,” Tarriela said.

“Hindi po ito sa paningin ng mga white supremacist, kundi sa perspektibo mismo ng Chinese government — sila po ang gumawa at nagpakalat ng video na iyan,” he added.

Tarriela said accepting the depiction of Filipinos as monkeys would amount to accepting an attack on the country’s dignity.

“Ako po, bilang Pilipino, ay hindi kailanman tatanggapin na unggoy ang aking lahi — at hindi ko rin matatanggap na unggoy ang mga susunod pang salinlahi ng ating bansa,” he said.

“Ang tunay na paggalang sa ating lahi ay ang ipagtanggol ito — hindi ang tanggapin ang pang-iinsulto.”

Padilla later hit back, saying Tarriela was responsible for escalating the dispute.

“Mr. Tarriela, it was you who drew first blood. This escalation into wartime propaganda was your genius creation,” Padilla said in a Facebook post.

The senator argued that racial caricatures should not determine how Filipinos view themselves or their place in the region.

“As for the Chinese media, aren't we all monkeys of different colors in the eyes of white colonizers/supremacists? Filipinos are brown, and Chinese and Japanese are yellow. We cannot deny our relativity to each other,” Padilla said.

Hours later, Padilla's office issued a separate statement accusing Tarriela of twisting the senator's words "to fit a convenient political narrative."

The statement said the senator had already condemned the Chinese-produced video but maintained that opposing Beijing's propaganda "does not mean we should remain silent about the use of inflammatory caricatures and wartime propaganda tactics by our own government officials."

It also said Tarriela, as an officer under the executive branch, had a responsibility to consider the diplomatic and national security implications of his public statements.

"Senator Padilla's points remain: defend our sovereignty, condemn insults against Filipinos, and stand up to harassment in the West Philippine Sea—but do so responsibly," the statement said.

Since President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. took office in 2022, Manila has shifted from largely quiet diplomacy to publicly documenting encounters with Chinese ships, releasing near real-time footage of water-cannon attacks, dangerous maneuvers and collisions to shape international opinion and counter Beijing's narrative. 

China continues to reject the 2016 arbitral ruling and has dismissed Manila's transparency campaign as political theater, while insisting it has sovereignty over most of the South China Sea despite the tribunal's decision.