Philippines Defense Minister Rips China After Receiving Note While on Stage at Seoul Defense Forum
Here is a very interesting interaction between the Filipino Defense Minister and the Chinese delegation during the Seoul Defense Forum in regards to China’s 9-dash line claim in the South China Sea:
Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro speaks during a panel session at the Seoul Defense Dialogue at The Grand Lotte Seoul hotel in central Seoul on Sept. 8, 2026, in this image captured from the forum’s YouTube livestream.
Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro lashed out at China during a Seoul defense forum Tuesday after receiving an audience note defending Beijing’s rejection of a 2016 international tribunal ruling upholding Manila’s maritime claims in the South China Sea. (………)
The secretary read the slip line by line and offered sharp retorts to each point. When the note claimed that arbitration violated fundamental international law, he shot back, “So what you’re saying is UNCLOS violates international law? That’s what you mean.”
Reading the part where it read the PCA award has “no binding force,” he said, “Because you don’t want to be subjected to UNCLOS,” and to that Beijing “neither accepts nor recognizes” the ruling, with Teodoro quipping, “Of course, because you lost.”
Teodoro then held up the slip of paper to the room, denouncing the gesture as a display of China’s “desperate and ineffective” stance, accusing Beijing of a complete lack of “basic decency” and utter disrespect for international law.
“Perhaps basic decency and behavior are what China needs,” he said, drawing applause from the audience. “This is not a gray zone anymore. This is actual coercion, bullying and aggression.”
You can read more at the link, but the note was mistakenly given to him by an aide working for China’s defense attaché assigned to South Korea. Teodoro even quipped that he hoped the aide who gave him the note doesn’t end up in a gulag.
Good for Teodoro for strongly standing up for the sovereignty of his country.
