Atin Ito, a broad civil society coalition committed to advancing the rights and welfare of Filipino fishers and frontliners in the West Philippine Sea, rejected China’s assistance to a distressed Filipino fisher as a deceptive, self-serving, and propaganda-driven public relations campaign. “We recognize the universal duty to assist people in distress at sea. But what China did was not humanitarianism, it was image management. It is propaganda-driven assistance meant to distract us from years of harassment, violence and illegal incursions,” said Atin To Coalition co-convenor Rafaela David.

Espiritu, R. (2025, December 28). China 'humanitarian' action in WPS hit as deceptive, propaganda-driven. Manila Standard, pp. A1, A2.