I have honestly tried my best not to validate that. I have tried to separate the man from his arguments and judge what he says on its own merits.
But this exchange between him and Commodore Jay Tarriela seems to validate what so many people have been saying all along:
Baka tanga nga talaga itong si Padilla.
China puts out a racist AI video depicting Filipinos as monkeys, and somehow Robin Padilla manages to turn the controversy into an attack on Jay Tarriela.
Not China.
Tarriela.
🤷♂️
The same Jay Tarriela who has been one of the loudest voices calling out China’s aggression and bullying in the West Philippine Sea.
That takes a special kind of stupidity on Robin’s part.
He keeps dragging up the caricature of Xi Jinping that Tarriela used during a university lecture months ago, as though a political caricature of one powerful man somehow gives anyone permission to dehumanize an entire people.
It doesn’t.
You can criticize Tarriela’s caricature. You can call it inappropriate. You can demand an apology.
But once you start using it to explain why Filipinos ended up being portrayed as monkeys, you are no longer simply condemning the insult. You are helping the people who made it manufacture an excuse.
And then Padilla gave us this masterpiece:
“Aren’t we all monkeys of different colors?”
No, Senator.
We are not.
Filipinos are not monkeys. Chinese are not monkeys. Japanese are not monkeys.
Human beings evolved a very long time ago.
Although, listening to Robin’s argument, you begin to wonder whether evolution occasionally leaves a few people behind.
And unfortunately, some of them still manage to win elections and hold government office.
This did not require a history lesson on white colonialism, Austronesian ancestry, or whatever racial classification system is currently operating inside Robin Padilla’s head.
It required a spine and one simple sentence:
Calling Filipinos monkeys is racist, and the people who produced and circulated that garbage should be condemned.
Instead, Padilla condemns China in one breath and then spends considerably more energy attacking Tarriela.
And that, I think, is the most revealing part of this ridiculous exchange.
When confronted with Chinese propaganda insulting Filipinos, Padilla somehow finds his fighting spirit when the opponent is another Filipino.
Against Tarriela, matapang.
Against the man who has been publicly calling out the China Coast Guard, matapang.
But when it comes to China itself, suddenly we get a lecture.
Colonialism.
History.
Caricatures.
Austronesian heritage.
“We are all monkeys.”
Kung anu-ano na.
Anything that moves the conversation away from the simple fact that China produced and circulated the racist video.
Worse, Padilla accused Tarriela of having “drawn first blood,” essentially suggesting that Tarriela started this propaganda escalation.
Then when Tarriela answered him, Padilla complained about being attacked.
Senator, you mentioned the man’s name.
You accused him.
He answered you.
Hindi po bullying ang tawag doon.
Reply po iyon.
Robin Padilla had one very easy job here: condemn the racist video and direct his anger at the people who made it.
Somehow, he still managed to pick a fight with Jay Tarriela instead.
And we should be cautious with what Robin is doing here.
Because although he is addressing Tarriela, he is also feeding the trolls.
He has just handed them several days’ worth of mental gymnastics to repeat:
“Si Tarriela naman ang nauna.”
“Na-provoke lang ang China.”
“Wartime propaganda rin naman ang ginawa ni Tarriela.”
“Racist din naman ang caricature ni Xi.”
“Lahat naman tayo unggoy sa mata ng mga puti.”
Watch for it.
These arguments will be repeated, chopped into memes, turned into talking points, and pushed until the original issue becomes buried under ten different distractions.
And suddenly, instead of talking about why China produced and circulated racist propaganda depicting Filipinos as monkeys, Filipinos will be fighting among themselves over Jay Tarriela, Xi Jinping caricatures, white colonialism, Austronesians, and whether we are technically all monkeys.
Mission accomplished.
Because stupid as Robin’s argument may be, it is useful to people who need an excuse to move the blame away from China.
And Robin just gave them one.