Tarriela: No directives to tone down, minimize my media presence

MANILA, Philippines — Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) spokesperson for the West Philippine Sea Commodore Jay Tarriela, on Friday said there are no directives for him to “tone down” and “minimize” his media presence in view of his recent heated exchanges with the Chinese embassy.

Tarriela said Malacañang fully supports the transparency initiative on West Philippine Sea matters amid  what he described as the Chinese embassy’s move to “convince” the national government to only let the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) “do the talking” and exclude the PCG and the military.

“I don’t think that there is a challenge in a way that you might think that I’m being asked to tone down or to minimize my media exposure or something — there is no such thing,” Tarriela said at the sidelines of the Stratbase forum at the Manila Polo Club when asked if such pressure from the embassy poses a challenge on his mandate.

Amid the continuous verbal tussle of government officials against the embassy, the DFA has designated Rogelio Villanueva Jr. as its spokesperson for maritime affairs.

Tarriela said he and Villanueva have since tackled their respective tasks. 

“I had a chance to talk to Sir Villanueva, as a matter of fact, yesterday, we even had coffee together,” he said.

“We always clarify the delineated jobs that we have.”

“For Sir Bong, of course, he’s the DFA spokesperson for maritime concern, that is his job description; and for me, I only talk about the coast guard operation and also, of course, this FIMI (Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference) operation when it comes to our activities in the West Philippines Sea,” he continued.

He also noted that China’s FIMI operations in the country are escalating in the past years, but had limited success. 

“It’s all because they need to exert so much effort to counter the transparency effort,” Tarriela said of the FIMI operations.

“I think with the effort under President Marcos wherein all of us are aware of what’s happening, it’s very difficult for the Chinese government to alter the public opinion when it comes to the West Philippine Sea right now,” he added.

Observers said West Philippine Sea tensions were downplayed during the time of former President Rodrigo Duterte, while Marcos reversed this move, launching the transparency initiative to expose Chinese aggressions there.

In line with this, Marcos also regularized the country’s ties with its sole treaty ally, the United States, as opposed to Duterte, who, at one point, even terminated the Visiting Forces Agreement during his term, although he had called this move off.

In 2023, Marcos green lighted joint patrols and military exercises with the U.S. in the West Philippine Sea, allowed Washington’s deployment of missile systems in northern Luzon and access to four more Philippine military bases under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (Edca), all of which earned the ire of China.

Three of the new Edca sites, as well as the last publicly-known locations of missile systems, are near Taiwan, a self-ruled island deemed by China as a renegade province subject to reunification. /gsg