President Marcos Jr. took a swipe at “detractors,” apparently aimed at China, in his fifth State of the Nation Address on Monday, as he pledged to uphold the validity of the 2016 arbitral ruling in the face of attempts to undermine it.

Although he did explicitly mention Beijing in his speech, Marcos’ remarks criticizing racism echoed recent statements of senators who took offense and rebuked state-owned media outlet China Daily for depicting Filipinos as monkeys as part of its fresh effort to undermine the arbitral ruling.

“Of late, our very humanity has been called into question. Let me remind our friends and our detractors: Filipinos are a noble, kind, gracious, and great race,” Marcos averred.

“We are not greedy. We are not racists. We are not liars. We are respectful, and we are dignified. We are Filipinos, and we do not yield,” he added.

The President also vowed that the government, under his watch, will exhaust all legal but peaceful means to defend the landmark ruling against “any attempt, foreign or domestic, to undermine this achievement.”

“This is not a claim that we advance alone, nor one that we will abandon,” he pointed out.

The arbitral award marked its 10th anniversary on 12 July. Marcos maintained that the award was “final and binding” and a “definitive benchmark for the interpretation and application of the UNCLOS” despite China’s continued disregard of the same.

The landmark award, handed down by the Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration, ruled in favor of Manila and unanimously dismissed Beijing’s sweeping claims in almost the entire South China Sea, including areas that overlap with the West Philippine Sea, as invalid and baseless.

China has never honored the decision, calling it “a worthless piece of paper that is illegal, null and void, and has no binding force.”