FIRING LINE: The only right Beijing has

FIRING LINE: The only right Beijing has

By Robert B. Roque Jr. | June 25, 2026

China has banned our Defense Secretary, the well-versed Gilberto Teodoro, from setting foot on its mainland. Nothing really surprising there.

Beijing’s sanctions on the tough and truth-telling Gibo extend to barring his wife and child from entering mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau, while prohibiting Chinese entities from doing business with any Teodoro family member.

In its most diplomatic terms, Teodoro is seen as “sabotaging bilateral relations” and making “irresponsible remarks.” Translation: He has been telling the truth, and China is getting hurt by it.

Teodoro has since stood his ground, unfazed, and shrugged it off. His remarks still only undermine what China cannot legitimately claim over Philippine waters: control.

To the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), China’s action against the Defense chief is what it is: an unfriendly act. To me, that’s simply a bully’s tantrum.

Yes, China has every right to ban Teodoro from its territory. That is, in fact, the only right it holds in this entire issue.

Because the far weightier matter lies not in Beijing’s petulant decree but in the substance, the calm, measured, and devastatingly accurate points that Teodoro has been making before the world. And it is precisely that calmness that infuriates China most.

Teodoro has stated plainly that while ASEAN pursues a Code of Conduct in the South China Sea, existing international law, consistent with UNCLOS, the UN Charter, and the 2016 Arbitral Award already defines clearly what responsible state behavior looks like.

“We will not sacrifice our territorial integrity and sovereignty because our Constitution does not allow us to do so,” he had stated. No argument there.

He has also articulated why a small developing archipelagic nation like the Philippines must logically reinforce alliances with like-minded regional partners like Japan and other claimant nations in the region committed to a rules-based maritime order. This is not a war cry against China. It is simply what any sovereign nation is entitled to do.

What makes this offensive to Beijing is the uncomfortable truth that China’s real interest in the South China Sea is not peaceful co-existence and free navigation along one of the world’s most critical economic routes, but the aggressive extension of its maritime territory, deep into the exclusive economic zones of its neighbors.

Here, China cannot argue with Teodoro’s words, especially when its red-flagged vessels are caught on camera bullying smaller Filipino boats, harassing fishermen, and militarizing artificially constructed islands.

China has invested enormously in strategic communications, narrative control, and the careful conditioning of regional opinion. Yet Teodoro, with diplomatic firmness and principled precision, dismantles those narratives effortlessly before every international forum he steps into.

China can ban him. But it cannot silence the truth; his voice echoes around the world. In that battlefield, the truth belongs not just to Teodoro or the Philippines. It belongs to every nation that believes sovereignty is not a privilege dispensed by superpowers, but a right that no amount of military muscle or economic coercion can extinguish.

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