Teodoro clashes with 'young Chinese journalists'
Department of National Defense (DND) Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. said he engaged in a verbal tussle with some young Chinese nationals who allegedly posed as journalists and confronted Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Chief of Staff Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr. over the South China Sea (SCS) dispute at the ongoing Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore.
Teodoro and Brawner appeared in a rare personal video on the sidelines of Asia’s premier defense summit on Saturday, May 31, to rebut a news item published on China Daily, an English-language daily newspaper owned by the Central Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
The news item titled “Philippine military chief dodges question” accused Brawner of avoiding queries hurled by the so-called journalists about China and the Philippines’ maritime row in the SCS.
The supposed encounter between Brawner and the alleged Chinese journalists occurred on May 30.
Accordingly, Brawner was off to a meeting with his counterparts from other countries when the Chinese journalists approached him outside of formal engagements so he had no time to answer their questions.
Brawner said the journalists violated protocol and captured selective footage used in the article.
“Kahapon hinarang ako at ‘yun nga pinipilit tayong tanungin pero dahil nagmamadali kami, pupunta kami doon sa isang meeting namin, bilateral meeting, hindi ko sinagot. But then later on, naglabas sila sa WeChat, binaliktad nila ‘yung istorya (Yesterday, they confronted me and they were asking me questions but since we were rushing to a bilateral meeting, I did not answer them. But then later on, they published an article on WeChat, they flipped the story),” Brawner said.
Eventually, Teodoro saw the Chinese journalists so he took the cudgels for Brawner.
“Noong ako ang tinanong, nakipagsagutan ako nang matagal dahil tinanong nila sa akin kung tayo daw ay proxy lang ng Amerika. Sabi ko, hindi tayo proxy, natural Pilipino tayo, pero sila magnanakaw ng teritoryo (When they asked me, I argued with them for a long time because they asked me if we are just a proxy of America. I told them that we are not a proxy – we are naturally Filipinos – but they are the ones stealing territory),” Teodoro said.
Teodoro criticized China for not sending their defense minister to the summit and deploying young Chinese individuals instead, whom he accused of being intelligence agents.
The defense chief also slammed the Chinese nationals for asking questions in an impolite manner.
For his part, Brawner hit the Chinese journalists’ “propaganda” which accused the Philippines of “infiltrating” the South China Sea.
“Iyon nga ang paratang nila na tayo ang nagiinfiltrate or encroach, pumapasok sa teritorya nila (Their accusation was that we are the ones infiltrating or encroaching their territory),” the military chief said.
The Philippines and China are embroiled in a territorial dispute in the SCS, as Beijing claims features within the 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone of Manila, including the West Philippine Sea (WPS).
A 2016 arbitral ruling invalidated China’s claims in the WPS based on their dash-line narrative but Beijing ignored the decision and continues to assert its presence in the strategic waterway.