Mira Eraya

Sapientiae. Choose goodness. Cogitare ante scribere vobis.

[Why Should We Care: Indo-Pacific Pod @IndoPacPodcast]

What Lessons Does the Philippines Take From Ukraine?

Philippine Defense Secretary Gibo Teodoro joins @GordianKnotRay and Jim for a sit down interview.

In this clip, he is asked what lessons the Philippines has learned from the Ukraine conflict. Secretary Teodoro highlights five key takeaways: 1. Capacity; 2. Resilience; 3. Reserves; and 4. Infrastructure.

Lastly, he emphasizes the most fundamental lesson learned from Ukraine: "Don't think it won't happen to you." A country must prepare to defend itself and be able to respond to any and all scenarios to protect its sovereignty and territorial integrity.

[Why Should We Care: Indo-Pacific Pod @IndoPacPodcast]

Why is China SINGLING OUT the Philippines?

Philippine Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro joins @GordianKnotRay and Jim for a sit down interview.

He explains the importance of the Philippines' geographic location and why Manila serves as the longest natural block between the South China Sea and the Pacific Ocean, making it geographically unique amongst ASEAN member states.

[Why Should We Care: Indo-Pacific Pod @IndoPacPodcast]

New: Why Should We Care About the Philippines Defense Secretary Who Won’t Back Down from China?

Onstage at the Seoul Defense Dialogue, Philippine Secretary of National Defense @giboteodoro was taking a question about Chinese coercion in the South China Sea when a forum staffer handed him a note, handwritten on hotel stationery, from China’s delegation. He decided to read it out loud, dismantling it line by line, and then said he would keep it as “a memento of how desperate China is.”

That clip rocketed around the world.

Secretary Teodoro joins co-hosts @GordianKnotRay and Jim Carouso to explain that the note was one move in a pattern he has watched across five regional forums: off-topic “alternative lectures” delivered instead of questions, people posing as journalists trying to make him lose his temper on camera, and delegations that avoid the panels they cannot control. His read is an active attempt “to make a more Sinocentric world,” and he points to Palau as another example of another country being told it’s too small to object.

On Beijing’s insults, Teodoro is blunt. China’s foreign affairs ministry berated him and other Filipino officials who push back for being “a handful of grandstanding buffoons”, though its official English-language translation softened the phrase to “certain individuals”. His verdict: “It’s duplicity, plain and simple. That’s what they are. Not as a people, mind you, but as a Party”. He traces the method to Mao’s destruction of Peng Dehuai and Xi’s purge of more than 200 senior figures, describing “muscle behind the cotton cladding.”

- Asked whether any channel exists to cool an incident at sea, Teodoro reveals he shut his department’s hotline with Beijing down: the calls became attempts to co-opt his people, with “neither discipline nor structure.”
- Asked what a Code of Conduct would need to be worth signing, his answer runs six words.
- Teodoro calls Chinese fuel and fertilizer shipments a “carefully laid down trap of dependence to make it look as kindness,” designed to produce “some kind of Stockholm Syndrome.”
- He walks through the illegal steel-plant network his department has raided: donated obsolete furnaces, radioactive scrap, substandard structural steel, a self-admitted fake Filipino operator, and a thread running to Singapore’s largest money-laundering case.
- He responds to the Chinese university report claiming the Batanes Islands belong to China and explains why Chinese instructors teaching Filipino children matter more than the paper did.

Plus, what Ukraine taught him (“reserves, reserves, reserves”), why he cannot imagine a Taiwan conflict that spares a country 90 kilometers away with 200,000 citizens working there, why the Philippines is talking about an expeditionary navy by 2050, the gap in Philippine espionage law he wants closed, and how he handles it when others float his name as a future president.

Secretary Teodoro’s bottom line: peace “is not a free dividend. It is purchased, it is bought, and it is enforced.”

Links to the full episode below.

[Mira Eraya @beeann8888]

The Philippines is called "Pearl of the Orient Seas" as mentioned in the lyrics of its National anthem to quote : "perlas ng silanganan". Thanks Sec.Teodoro for this. He is our future President or Vice President and still Sec. of Defense. @bongbongmarcos

[Why Should We Care: Indo-Pacific Pod @IndoPacPodcast]

Why is China SINGLING OUT the Philippines?

Philippine Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro joins @GordianKnotRay and Jim for a sit down interview.

He explains the importance of the Philippines' geographic location and why Manila serves as the longest natural block between the South China Sea and the Pacific Ocean, making it geographically unique amongst ASEAN member states.

[Mira Eraya @beeann8888]

@bongbongmarcos @realDonaldTrump @hegseth Philippine presidential election in 2028 will be geopolitical as it involves control of West Philippine Sea and international trade passes thru there annually is USD$3.3 trillion.

[Rodolfo Medrano @ruminarist]

SARA WILL BE convicted. Baste will replace her for the 2028 presidential election. And guess what...China will indirectly "interfere" in our election to ensure that another Duterte will sit on the throne of Malacañang.

[mí mèi 🍓 @bebuapprovedcpa]

CARLOS YULO WON!!! 🇵🇭🥇 and Go Up by SB19 was playing at the venue??? 😭

[Mira Eraya @beeann8888]

@bongbongmarcos @pcogovph

[Mira Eraya @beeann8888]

Good character should be manifested primarily by top officials.Citizens emulate & imitate them.Yesterday, Duterte senators showed IMMATURITY & UNPROFESSIONALISM by not participating in the "threshold" concern.They acted obviously based on their emotions and personal motives.

[Mira Eraya @beeann8888]

Good character should be manifested primarily by top officials.Citizens emulate & imitate them.Yesterday, Duterte senators showed IMMATURITY & UNPROFESSIONALISM by not participating in the "threshold" concern.They acted obviously based on their emotions and personal motives.

[Jesus Falcis 🇵🇭 @jesusfalcis]

Naku hala sino gumawa neto?

Napaka husay.

Pwede nang mangarap!

😂

#RisaHontiveros
#ConvictSaraDuterte

[Mira Eraya @beeann8888]

Middle Class is suffering due to high prices of EVERYTHING.They are already suffering and compromising health needs to survive. It's the middle class who consumes more.If they suffer, the economy will suffer too. NO TO EXCISE TAX ON FUEL.@bongbongmarcos @kikopangilinan

[GMA News @gmanews]

PANOORIN: Hindi ineendorso ng Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) ang suspensiyon ng excise tax sa gasolina at diesel, ayon kay Finance Sec. Frederick Go.

Sa halip na suspensiyon, ayuda ang rekomendasyon ng DBCC para sa vulnerable sectors, tulad ng mga mahihirap, transport drivers, magsasaka at mangingisda. | via @nimfaravelo

Bisitahin ang https://t.co/bAMF9JO2Xs para sa iba pang updates.

[Mira Eraya @beeann8888]

There are scammers again texting with attached link. How can they get a company name with no number reflected? Our cellphone companies can be paid by these scammers and get away with it. They're back.@bongbongmarcos @DICTgovph

[Troj_GEN @aimaniohsa]

Stell and Pablo's take on 'THE NOTEBOOK The Musical'. ☺️🫶

@SB19Official #SB19

[Troj_GEN @aimaniohsa]

FINALLY IN ONE FRAME.
Ms. Lea Salonga x Stell x Pablo 🥹

@stellajero_ @imszmc
@SB19Official #SB19

[Mira Eraya @beeann8888]

@KPOPWORLD Some people do not read. They just comment based on their own short mindedness. The reason of difficulty in getting a US Visa is really a concern nowadays because USA is more strict in giving a visa due to plenty of illegal immigration issues in the USA.

[Mira Eraya @beeann8888]

@bongbongmarcos @dndphl @giboteodoro

[Leila de Lima @manayleila]

Nirentahang Chinese vessels para mag-dredge sa Zambales? 🤔

Our office has been receiving continued complaints from affected coastal communities regarding the large-scale dredging and extraction activities in San Felipe, Zambales.

Marami na ang naulat na pamilyang napilitang lumikas, nagsarang mga negosyo, at nasirang kabuhayan ng mga mangingisda. 

May mga naglalakihan pang barko na may Chinese names, na ang ilan ay may kaduda-dudang record. Bakit nakapag-operate pa rin ang mga ito?

Ang palusot ba ngayon ay umarkila lang sa mga Chinese ang local operators?

This matter warrants a more in-depth investigation. Hindi pwedeng tinetengga lang ang ganitong nakababahalang usapin sa ating kalikasan at pambansang seguridad.

[Mira Eraya @beeann8888]

@birgovph @bongbongmarcos @dojphofficial

[DAVAOMIGRANT @nabunturanguy]

Hindi ba natuto itong Rosmar na ito sa mga Discaya at Korina at Julius? ₱13M a day plus luxury cars, etc? At this day and age, ano bang business yang kumikita ng ₱13M a day, other than flood control fund scam? Is this going to be another case of “if-you-have-it-flaunt-it” gone bad? https://t.co/1Rbk5fprkI

[The Philippine Star @PhilippineStar]

OPINION: Bastos. Sorry. There is no English word that captures the import of impoliteness, condescending attitude, insolence, contemptuousness and outright disrespect conveyed by bastos. https://t.co/pLU71ppKhK

[Mira Eraya @beeann8888]

@bongbongmarcos @OmbudsmanPh @dojphofficial @ChelDiokno @manayleila @terryridon

[Rappler @rapplerdotcom]

A company linked to Vice President Sara Duterte cornered P15.02 million worth of food and catering contracts from the PhilHealth Davao Regional Office and Davao City Hall, which has been run by their family for decades.

The contracts were awarded between 2022 and 2025.

[Mira Eraya @beeann8888]

@bongbongmarcos @jaytaryela @dndphl @TeamAFP

[Jan Jekielek @JanJekielek]

Palau President Surangel Whipps Jr. describes what he sees as the CCP’s abusive approach to diplomacy.

First comes the promise of money and prosperity.

Then comes the threat if Palau refuses to fall in line.

“Every time I have meetings with the Chinese, what they’ve done is they first tell me how wonderful they are, and then they turn around and say, ‘Well, if you don’t behave, we’ll beat you up.’”

“They’ve told us, ‘Oh, we can build all the hotels you want, bring you a million tourists, but then if you don’t switch, then we’ll cut off the tourists.’”

“They keep on saying what we’re doing is illegal.”

“Well, obviously Palau recognizes Taiwan, so the ‘One China’ principle doesn’t apply in Palau.”

“We believe that every country that has a right to self-determine should be allowed that right.”

“They said, ‘Well, you’re a small country. You shouldn’t have so much ocean.’”

“Or, ‘You’re a small country, we’re a big country.’”

“Okay, we’re still a country.”

@Surangeljr

[Mira Eraya @beeann8888]

Inconsistent. In psychology, inconsistent people are considered to have a mental health issue.

[JuanMigRiveraLegazpi @JMRivLegaz]

Taenang to! Nanggagago na lang din talaga e!😂

[Mira Eraya @beeann8888]

Our shared common thoughts.Yet they still do it thinking they can fool us. Pack of wolves. We hear and know stories.Saddening though coz it was and is still tolerated.The Philippines is not poor...never been. Just plundered. @OmbudsmanPh @bongbongmarcos @dojphofficial @SCPh_PIO

[вrαєluríє 💜🐼 @braelurie]

@jesusfalcis Daming masasakiting magnanakaw ngayon, ano?

Pero nung nagpapakasasa sa pera ng bayan, malalakas pa sa kalabaw ang mga buwiset.

Eh tayo mga ordinaryong mamamayan, kahit nadi-depress at nagkakasakit, SORRY na lang tayo.

Kasawa na ang drama nila.