By Robert B. Roque, Jr.
What Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro said at the recent Shangri-La Dialogue has spread far and beyond Singapore and claimant parties in the South China Sea, exposing China’s information hijacking for what it is: a propaganda machine.
I’ve been seeing TikTok shares of his video clips, snapping back at Beijing’s war tactic masquerading as diplomacy. I have to admit, I’m still triggered by the fact that while other defense chiefs at the dialogue spoke as equals — China sent no minister, no counterpart to Teodoro, only low-ranking officers and supposed “Ministry of State Security (MSS)” mouthpieces posing as media.
They didn’t come to listen. They came to provoke — to hijack airtime with baited questions, hoping the Philippine delegation would trip over their own truth.
Fortunately, Teodoro held the line, calling them out and letting the real truths sink in: that China is the only party illegally claiming more than 80% of the South China Sea; that it rejects a binding 2016 arbitral ruling; that it harasses Filipino fishermen in our own waters, firing water cannons at research vessels; and that it has militarized reefs it doesn’t even legally own.
Now, as video clips of his response are shared, netizens around the world are taught to be wiser in identifying Beijing’s propaganda machine for its products that creep into social media feeds everywhere, attempting to rewrite maritime claims, distort history, and tamper with our collective judgment.
Here in the Philippines, Filipinos already know that all too well and it’s a good thing that members of Congress are now pushing for a bill that would criminalize the deliberate spreading of false information, especially when weaponized to sabotage our national interests.
It’s been far too long that lies from China’s propaganda machine have been dressed as “news” and allowed to be funneled through trolls and fake pages.
Like the Philippines, other interested parties in the South China Sea must put safeguards against this abuse of social media, because what’s at stake is not just public discourse among netizens but sovereignty.
Filipino politicians, wittingly or otherwise, are not immune to these disinformation campaigns that are often state-sponsored and aimed at dividing us, normalizing illegal occupation of our islands in the West Philippine Sea, and even attempting to influence elections.
House Bill No. 11506 is an attempt to draw a line in the sand. Up to 12 years in prison and stiff penalties await those proven to operate or benefit from such deceit. The stakes are no longer just reputational or political. This is national security.
Rep. Robert Ace Barbers calls it a cognitive war — and he’s right. It’s a war of perception, of narratives, of slow and calculated gaslighting. And it’s already here. You don’t need a drone strike when a meme or deepfake can do the job.
So yes, legislation must be swift and deliberate in addressing this, because no foreign power must have the means to fight us with lies; and we must not be left ill-equipped to defend our nation with the truth.
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