By Adolfo Quizon Paglinawan

Series 16: Forever peace or forever wars?

The country’s top charlatan may have become careless but it seems he is not conscious that his diatribes against Beijing have already implicated his superior, President Bongbong Marcos Jr., an elected official who recently called for a reset in Philippine-China relations, after a recent isolated violent confrontation occurred at Ayungin Shoal.

Read: Strategic Wisdom in Marcos Reset with China by Rommel Banlaoi, president of the Philippine Society for International Security Studies.

https://www.manilatimes.net/2026/08/27/opinion/contributors/strategic-wisdom-in-marcos-reset-with-china/2412693

Daily Tribune reports that Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. said there are grounds to suspect that some Philippine officials may be receiving support from China, although he confessed that the government does not yet have evidence sufficient to substantiate such allegations.

Teodoro told the House Committee on Appropriations during the Department of National Defense’s budget hearing after Akbayan Party-list Rep. Dadah Ismula asked whether the he had credible information linking government officials to Chinese support and influence operations:

“We have some ground to perhaps suspect it, but credible information in respect to evidence is kind of hard to adduce.”

Liza fingers Marcos

Three weeks ago, Teodoro went into tantrums claiming that he did not agree to any provisional arrangement Marcos authorized in July 2024 for a routine resupply of our troops stationed at the BRP Sierra Madre, implicitly disowning the protocol.

This time he has again compromised the President, as an elected official cozying up to China on a matter that does not coincide with his narratives in the so-called West Philippine Sea.

Worse, in a matter that rattles skeletons in Marcos’ closet, pertaining to the last  the presidential elections.

In-one-on-one interview with Anthony Taberna on his vlog “Tune In Kay Tunying”, which was streamed on April 19, 2024, First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos said “my brother (Martin Araneta) and Michael, they are so rich. I mean, they basically bankrolled our election.”

She made the remark while defending her brother and his business associate Michael Ma who is president of China-Philippines United Enterprises, against accusations by former special envoy Mon Tulfo,  linking them to onion smuggling and hoarding.

However, Ma does not appear in the publicly reported list of named donors in Marcos Jr.’s 2022 Statement of Contributions and Expenditures (SOCE) in the same way that some Chinese donors are declared.

In January 2023, Senator Imee Marcos’ office noted that the House had identified Michael Ma among ten alleged large-scale agricultural smugglers who were being invited to a congressional hearing.

The Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ), which reconstructed 67 Marcos’ campaign donors from his SOCE, contributing ₱624.7 million, but it also warned that some donors’ identities could not be independently confirmed because Comelec had redacted information.

Prominent Filipino-Chinese names included:

Philip G. Lo, ₱25 million; Mitchell Vy Chua, ₱20 million; Bryan Chan Lim, an executive associated with Suyen Corp.,  ₱20 million; Francis Augustus Lee Wee, ₱20 million and Norman Vincent Lee Wee P20 million, brothers and W Group executives; Betsy Liao-Manapsal, businesswoman, ₱10 million; Chase Young Cokaliong, Cokaliong Shipping Lines executive, ₱10 million; and Dioceldo Sy, founder of Ever Bilena.

Even Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr., the current aggie secretary, was legally and properly listed as a campaign donor in the official records and SOCE Marcos for ₱30  million,

Loose cannon

Once again, the top defense official ran a conclusion arrived through suspicion, utterly irresponsible and so much out of character for one who is regarded as an officer of the court – a lawyer and a bar topnotcher at that, to assert, without evidence.

This connects to his earlier asking government officials siding with Beijing, to resign, which has been observed by his critics as casting aspersions against his own branch of government, notably his fellow members of the Presidential Cabinet.

A friend of mine who runs a regular media forum, who wants to remain anonymous at this juncture, said this was a very dangerous innuendo that the defense secretary unleashed, first, as South China Sea issues are not the total embodiment of national security and second as the Chinese government considers it a stringent red line and unlawful to meddle in the internal affairs of any other country.

I have cited time and again the July 2026 Pulse Asia survey that only 3% of Filipinos regard protection of our sovereignty from foreign aggression as an urgent national concern.

“Arguably this boner could also put many in the Filipino-Chinese community as fair game to becoming a Teodoro subject of witch-hunt,” he said.

In a recent controversial raid of Sanjia Steel Mill in Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental, the defense secretary freely implicated the Yang brothers, Michael and Tony as being connected to the establishment only to be disclosed by later investigation that Michael is not part of the corporation and Tony has divested himself of holdings a long time ago.

That is how wild as it can get.

Agriculture

Agriculture and Fisheries Secretary Kiko Tiu Laurel contributed to Marcos’ presidential campaign. He is vulnerable because first his father lives just across the Acacia Street frontage of Chinese Embassy at Dasmarinas Village and second his uncle is one of the fierce critics of the mythical “West Philippine Sea” and of Americal neo-colonialism in-country.

China is the strongest supporters of Laurel’s department, with no less than Chinese Ambassador Jing Quan assuring the Philippines that it will sustain its fertilizer exports to the Philippines despite the instability of the Strait of Hormuz and persistent price increases  as global oil supply continues to be choked by the US-Israel and Iran conflict and persistent oil price hikes.

While the Philippines has already procured “84 percent of our fertilizer needs for this year,” the industry is bracing for possible delays in terms of deliveries, Tiu-Laurel said.


Laurel also said the DA will also deploy a “study mission to China to see the alternative ways” in fertilizer use and production, he said.

The move comes as the price of fertilizer doubled to $800 per ton from $400 before the air strikes in the Middle East paralyzed the Strait of Hormuz, where 20 percent of the world’s oil supply passes through.

Tourism

DOT Secretary Dita Angara-Mathay may also be targeted as supported by China.

The Department of Tourism (DOT) said it welcomed the launch of three new direct flights connecting Manila to three destinations in China, seeing the development as an opportunity to boost the country’s tourism growth.

They include XiamenAir’s inaugural Chongqing–Manila service, which launched on May 21, connecting the Philippine capital to the southwestern Chinese municipality regarded as one of the country’s largest metropolitan centers.

Xiamen Air also launched its Hangzhou–Manila route on May 20, with flights operating four times a week from the capital of Zhejiang province in eastern China.

The third route connects the capital of Hunan province in central China, Changsha to Manila, launched by Qingdao Airlines on May 16.

Secretary Mathay said the developments reflect the government’s strategy to speed up “the restoration of air connectivity from China:

“We recognize that this (Chinese) market remains one of the Philippines’ biggest opportunities for tourism growth“.

Trade

Maria Cristina Aldeguer-Roque, secretary of trade and industry since 2024, is supported by China. –

Roque  met with Chagee managing partner and APAC chief operating officer Brook Fu and Chagee Philippines general manager Christopher “Sonny” Tiong in Shanghai, to review how the brand has scaled rapidly in less than a year, reaching 16 stores across the Philippines by the end of April 2026.

CHAGEE, a fast-growing premium brand focused on modernizing traditional tea culture, officially entered the Philippine market in August 2025 with the simultaneous launch of three Metro Manila stores at SM North EDSA, Robinsons Galleria, and Venice Grand Canal Mall.

As of December 31, 2025, CHAGEE has operated 7,453 teahouses globally, marking a 15.7% year-on-year increase. The company also recorded a total Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) of RMB 31.58 billion in 2025, a 7.2% year-on-year growth that underscores its continued global momentum.

Foreign Affairs

DFA Secretary Teresa Lazaro and Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi supports each other diplomatically despite transitional disagreements.

Overall bilateral relations have remained cordial amid repeated maritime confrontations in the South China Sea that have been influenced by the Philippines unilateral interpretation of a 2016 arbitral ruling.

Wang accused “certain forces” within and without the Philippine military and police of deliberate provocations, undermining constructive dialogue.

Lazaro said that they also “discussed the importance of keeping communication lines open, managing tensions, and pursuing practical ways forward”.

Police matters

Teodoro counterpart PNP chief Gen. Jose Melencio Nartatez Jr. is supported by the China government.

Nartatez Jr. welcomed Wang Xizhang, executive director general of the Fujian Provincial Public Security Department, during a courtesy visit at the Star Officer’s Lounge in Camp Crame, to boost intelligence sharing and law enforcement cooperation against transnational criminal syndicates.

“The knowledge and best practices gained through this partnership will be cascaded to our operating units” the PNP chief said ordering concerned units to incorporate international learnings from foreign law enforcement partners into training and operational planning to improve the PNP’s operational capability against cross-border crimes, “Nartatez said.

Disaster control

One of the areas where Chinese government cooperation is on high all the time is connected to the National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council (NDRRMC).

Ironically, the agency is chaired by Gilbert Teodoro himself as secretary of defense.

“In the past few days, the Philippines was stricken successively by Typhoons Tino and Uwan, suffering significant casualties and property losses. We express deep condolences to the victims and sincere sympathies to the bereaved families, the injured, and the affected communities,” it said.

Tino claimed 232 casualties while Uwan listed 25.

Emphasizing the friendship between the Filipino and Chinese people, the embassy said Beijing will donate $1 million in cash and 10 million RMB in kind, amounting to about $2.4 million in total.

Major Filipino-Chinese Tycoons

Teodoro’s single issue anti-China paranoia is dangerous as it may conflate by mistake to ancestry, investments in China, Chinese joint-venture partners, trade, political/diplomatic relationships, or alleged links to the PRC state.

It may metastasize to prejudice against major Philippine business families or tycoons with substantial business or institutional connections to mainland China, Hong Kong, or Chinese companies, such as:

• Henry Sy/SM Investments, SM Prime, BDO | SM historically developed malls in mainland China, including Chengdu, Chongqing and Suzhou; the Sy family also has longstanding business/cultural connections with Fujian.
• Tan family/LT Group, Philippine Airlines, Philippine National Bank, tobacco, liquor, property. Lucio Tan was born in Xiamen; the group has extensive historical investments/business activity in China and Hong Kong, including Eton properties.
• Gokongwei family JG Summit, Robinsons, Cebu Pacific, Universal Robina Corporation/ | JG Summit/Robinsons has had significant China investments, including property development in Chengdu; the family has also promoted Philippine-China educational/business links.
• Andrew Tan / Alliance Global, Megaworld, Emperador, Travellers Intl Hotels | Chinese-Filipino businessman of Fujian ancestry; his business empire has had commercial connections with China.
• George Ty family/Metrobank, GT Capital, Federal Land | Longstanding Chinese-Filipino business family with extensive historical Philippine-China commercial relationships. Cursory research identifies the Ty family among the country’s leading Chinese-Filipino business families.
• Gotianun family/Filinvest, EastWest Bank | Chinese-Filipino family; historical business connections within the wider Chinese commercial network.
• Yuchengco family/ RCBC, House of Investments, Malayan | Chinese-Filipino family with particularly significant historical China connections; Alfonso Yuchengco was also a former Philippine ambassador to China.
• Carlos Chan /Oishi/Liwayway Holdings | One of the most conspicuous Philippine businessmen with actual China manufacturing/business operations and long-standing advocacy of Philippine-China commercial relations.
• Alfredo Yao / Zest-O, banking, beverages | Filipino-Chinese businessman with longstanding China business/community connections.
• Ramon Ang / San Miguel Corp. | Extensive international business relationships; certain PROC development-finance recipients also identify interests connected to the Ang family.
• Dennis Uy / Udenna, former Phoenix Petroleum interests, infrastructure/energy | Chinese-Filipino businessman whose companies have had Chinese business/investment relationships; academic research identifies the Uy family among Filipino-Chinese ownership interests in PROC-linked projects.

This may further confound to the Lu Do & Lu Ym Corporation based in Cebu, involved in the coconut and corn staple commodities industry in the Philippines. supporting the welfare of its community and over 20 million farmers in the region. They manufacture Capitol cooking oil, Farola cornstarch, and engage in warehouse leasing and tank depot leasing.

Or the Gaisanos, another major Chinese-Filipino business family originating in Cebu, with commercial roots to White Gold Department Store and a business empire concentrated historically in retail and malls across the Visayas and Mindanao but who may not have established Chinese state-enterprise relationship.

Or the Limketkai businesses that began in Cagayan de Oro as pioneers in manufacturing and agriculture, producing the household staple Marca Leon.

Non-Chinese tycoons with China ties

Teodoro’s lonely crusade could also implicate the businesses of non-Chinese ancestry oligarchs like the Pangilinan, Ayala and Razon Groups.

Manny Pangilinan’s has ties through Hong Kong-based investment management firms like First Pacific Holdings which has stakes in the oil and gas explorations in the Reed Bank. PLDT Inc. and Smart Communications have partnered extensively with Chinese tech giant Huawei.

Shenzhen-based Tencent Holdings acquired a major minority stake in Voyager Innovations, the financial technology arm of PLDT, in a multimillion-dollar deal.

On July 3, Ambassador Jing Quan met with Jaime Augusto Zobel De Ayala, chairman of Ayala Corporation, and senior executives overseeing businesses in electric vehicles, real estate, energy, telecommunications, and healthcare. They exchanged views on trade and economic cooperation between China and the Philippines.

Ayala Land Inc. grew by 32 percent in 2017 to P41.6 billion. Chinese nationals accounted for 49.4 percent. Subsequently, it has announced plans to develop Sino-Philippine Industrial Park in Porac, Pampanga, engaging with Chinese manufacturing partners after unwinding and liquidating its investments from Tianjin Eco-City, a public-private partnership project in China in 2010 with learnings alongside international developers including China’s Shimao Group.

Ayala acts as the official local distributor of Chinese manufacturer BYD electric vehicles (EVs) in the Philippines through Ayala Corporation subsidiaries.

The Ayala electronics manufacturing arm, Integrated Micro-Electronics Inc., operates smart manufacturing facilities in Jiaxing, China.

Earlier in April, Enrique Razon met with Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Jing Quan to discuss boosting trade and investment amid complex geopolitical ties. As chairman of Bloomberry Resorts, Razon expressed that warmer diplomatic and bilateral ties between Manila and Beijing positively support Philippine tourism and economic exchange.

As Forbes.com’s richest Filipino businessman with an estimated net worth of $21.8 billion, he maintains pragmatic and economic engagements with China through his port operations, diplomatic meetings, and regional business interests.

His flagship global port operator, International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI), operated the Yantai International Container Terminal Ltd. (YICTL) in China’s Shandong province for years, noting that local operations dealt smoothly with municipal authorities despite broader national tensions

Fomenting Sinophobia?

Teodoro has definitely overtaken the former loose-tongue-in-chief PCG Jay Tarriela.

His rhetoric has become socially dangerous as he treats China, Chinese authorities, Chinese nationals, Chinese-Filipinos and ordinary Chinese people” as interchangeable and progressive categories.

Once those categories are blurred, legitimate national-security concerns can spill over into ethnic or nationality-based prejudice.

In December 2023, Teresita Sy-Coson, vice chairperson of SM Investments Corporation, cautioned the Marcos administration against maintaining a belligerent or highly confrontational stance regarding territorial disputes in the South China Sea (SCS).

She urged the government to look at its own economic position and actively avoid getting caught or taking sides in the broader US-China superpower competition, telling Bloomberg, “The Philippines cannot be too antagonistic towards China because, after all, we can’t change our neighbors.”

Speaking on the sidelines of a company event, the influential lady tycoon emphasized that escalating geopolitical friction could heavily impact business confidence, trade, and economic stability.

Teodoro’s recent statements, precisely illustrates that risk:

In June 2026, he described China as a “severe threat” to the Philippines, after which Beijing sanctioned him and his immediate family. He subsequently described China as “wicked.”

The Sanjia case is particularly sensitive In August, amid the controversy, Teodoro accused Chinese authorities of intervention and cover-up.

His  repeated public references to  Chinese nationals in connection with espionage, illegal operations, environmental violations and foreign interference, can nevertheless contribute to a generalized public association between “Chinese nationality” and “security threats”, particularly when the underlying cases are still being investigated or litigated.

There is also evidence that the problem already exists

This isn’t merely theoretical. Chinese-Filipino communities have previously expressed concern that national-security controversies—including the POGO investigations and South China Sea tensions—were producing increased anti-Chinese sentiment and demands for loyalty checks.

Teodoro himself recently criticized racist Chinese propaganda after a Chinese online post depicted Filipinos as monkeys as resorting to racism.

But that principle should apply “symmetrically”.

While Chinese social media should not portray Filipinos negatively because of Philippine government policy, Philippine government officials should have disciplined Commodore Jay Tarriela when he earlier displayed AI generated caricatures of Xi Jingpin to his audience in a lecture at a Manila university, while donning his Philippine Coast Guard uniform, and thereafter refusing to apologize for his crass behavior.

The danger with Teodoro’s rhetoric is that a sustained government narrative about Chinese security threats can normalize nationality-based suspicion unless officials continually distinguish the PROC government from Chinese people and from Filipinos of Chinese ancestry.

Conclusion

In sum, Secretary Teodoro’s increasingly confrontational rhetoric toward the Peoples Republic of China contribute to Sinophobia as it blurs the distinction between the Chinese government, Chinese state-linked entities, Chinese nationals accused of specific offenses, and ordinary Chinese and Chinese-Filipino people.

This has become serious because a fortune has now been invested by unscrupulous forces in converting what Teodoro feeds into social media platforms infested by troll farms.

His responsibility as “defense secretary” therefore extends to make the objects of whatever criticism influenced by him as precise and evidence-based.

This is significant particularly because Teodoro is not an ordinary commentator—he is the Secretary of National Defense, and some of his propaganda have already crossed over to hate speech.

This is sad and embarrassing as his position carry institutional authority.

Which leads to the question: Who is really calling the shots? Marcos or Teodoro?

Annexes:

20 Nagging Questions Secretary Teodoro, Marcos Government must Answer

Despite Teodoro’s Bigoted Noise, Filipinos Will Never War with China

You can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig

   

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