You know what, folks, what you are looking at in those photographs (see below) is NOT “academic freedom.” It is state-endorsed propaganda theater performed on a university campus in uniform before students.
A Philippine Coast Guard officer, uniformed officer of the Philippine government, in full service dress, is standing in front of a classroom with a slide titled “Why China remains to be bully?” accompanied by caricatured, mocking images of Chinese President Xi Jinping, grotesque, juvenile, meme-like distortions of a sitting foreign head of state. That alone already crosses several red lines.
Let’s be very clear about what is wrong here, and let me address this to Marcos Jr himself, since all of this was done and executed under his leadership as President and his government.
1. This is a DIPLOMATIC INSULT, NOT EDUCATION: There is a profound difference between criticizing a government’s policy and ridiculing a head of state. Serious countries criticize China’s maritime claims. Serious diplomats invoke UNCLOS and international law. Serious militaries conduct professional briefings on threat assessment. What you do not do, if you are a disciplined officer of a sovereign state, is flash mocking caricatures of a head of state on a PowerPoint like you’re hosting a late-night comedy show.
That is NOT analysis.
That is NOT scholarship.
That is NOT even diplomacy.
That is “kabastusan” (disrespect, rudeness, vulgarity, and undignified behavior), plain and simple!
If a Chinese PLA officer stood in front of students in Beijing showing grotesque caricatures of Marcos Jr., do you think Malacañang would call that “academic discourse”? Or would it call it a hostile act? What do you think, Mr. President Marcos Jr?
Take note, when this dude speaks publicly, especially inside universities, he speaks in the name of the Republic of the Philippines. So what he did was not “his opinion.” It was a state/government speech delivered in uniform at an academic institution. That makes those slides a de facto statement of the Philippine government’s posture under Marcos Jr.’s government. Is this how you conduct and execute your foreign policy, Mr. Marcos Jr.? Really? Seriously?
3. Marcos Jr.’s Foreign Policy Now Looks Like a “Meme War. Marcos Jr. keeps saying, especially in front of Chinese diplomats and his wife, the first lady, who usually graces and attends Chinese Embassy in Manila gatherings as the special guest of honor, that both of them wants to pursue dialogue and avoid escalation with China, and protect Filipino interests, yet his own Coast Guard goes into a university and runs cartoon propaganda slides ridiculing Xi Jinping, the top leader (President) of China. What kind of hypocrisy is this, Marcos Jr. and First Lady Liza Marcos?
Which message should Beijing believe?
The diplomatic notes from the PH foreign affairs, or the PowerPoint of this coastguard?
Because in international politics, signals matter more than speeches.
And the signal this sends is ugly, amateurish, and dangerous, – “We no longer engage China as a state. We mock it as an enemy.”
That is NOT deterrence!
That is NOT diplomacy!
That is PROVOCATION!
What do you think, Marcos Jr.?
4. Universities Are Not Psychological-Warfare Rooms. The most disturbing part of this is that this is NOT education. This is indoctrination dressed as civic discourse. We are no longer teaching students how to think. We are teaching them who to hate and be indoctrinated by it. Is this how we want to mold the minds of our young people? Is this how we define so-called active citizenry and the love for country? Seriously? Really? Goodness! And cruel irony is that you don’t win territorial disputes with cartoons or memes.
So yes, BBM, this is on you! Mr. Marcos Jr., if this is now how Philippine foreign policy is conducted, through mockery, cartoons, and performative hostility, then we are not practicing diplomacy. We are practicing cheap theatrics for Washington’s applause.
Mr. President, your Coast Guard officer just did something even POTUS would never dare do:
He publicly humiliated a foreign head of state in front of Filipino youth within the confines of a university. That is NOT Education at all. That is RECKLESSNESS!
If this is the “BBM doctrine,” then we have replaced statecraft with stand-up comedy, and strategy with slideshows of insult. And when Beijing reacts, as any major power would, Marcos Jr. and the whole of his government will again pretend to be shocked.
The SCS dispute is a serious matter. It deserves serious minds. Not PowerPoint propaganda and “Kabastusan” (offensive, shameless, vulgar, and deliberately disrespectful behavior) masquerading as patriotism.
We can uphold and defend our sovereignty and assert our claims in the SCS without degrading our universities into arenas of psychological warfare and ideological conditioning.We can defend our SCS claims without turning our campuses and our youth into instruments of state-sponsored propaganda.We do not need to militarize our classrooms to protect our seas.
A confident nation defends its maritime rights through law, diplomacy, and strategic coherence, not by converting its universities into propaganda theaters.
We can stand firm and assert our stance in the SCS without sacrificing our universities to the logic of psychological warfare and political spectacle. Strong countries argue their case with law and diplomacy; insecure ones turn their students into propaganda audiences, and that’s what happened and what this coastguard did!
Senator Imee R. Marcos, as the head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, what can you say about this?
Note:
Originally posted on Facebook account of Anna Malindog-Uy
Reprinted on Pinoy Exposé (https://www.pinoyexpose.net/news/the-infantilization-of-ph-statecraft-what-say-you-sen-imee)
