Investigate Whether Jay Tarriela Leaked Classified Information. Demand His Doctoral Thesis
The Issue
We, the undersigned citizens, respectfully make two urgent calls. First, we call on the appropriate Philippine authorities — such as the Office of the Ombudsman, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), and the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA) — to investigate whether Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) Spokesperson Jay Tarriela transmitted classified information to a foreign academic institution. Second, we urge Jay Tarriela himself to immediately release the full text of his doctoral dissertation online. Our reasons are as follows.
The Office of the Spokesperson of the Philippine Coast Guard is no ordinary posting. The Spokesperson speaks on matters of national security, territorial integrity, and the rule of law at sea, and every statement shapes the public’s trust in the institution. That trust can stand only on credentials that withstand verification and conduct that withstands scrutiny. Article XI, Section 1 of the 1987 Constitution says it best: “Public office is a public trust. Public officers and employees must at all times be accountable to the people.”
Jay Tarriela completed his doctoral dissertation at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) in Japan in 2021 and earned his Ph.D. in Advanced Policy Studies in the same year. Under Japan’s Degree Regulations (Order No. 9 of 1953, as amended), doctoral degree holders are required, as a rule, to publish the full text of their dissertations online within one year. Only under “unavoidable circumstances” — typically pending patent applications or third-party confidential content — may the university permit the publication of the abstract alone, with the full text made available for perusal upon request.
Yet a direct check of the GRIPS Institutional Repository (https://grips.repo.nii.ac.jp/records/1820)shows the reality to be far more irregular than a routine invocation of that exception would warrant: the abstract and the results are downloadable by anyone, yet the full text alone remains unpublished. Of the 22 Ph.D. dissertations examined in 2020, the full texts of the other 21 are all openly accessible online; Jay Tarriela’s is the only one whose full text has not been made public and for which no explanation is on record. The petition starter has written to GRIPS repeatedly to ask why, and GRIPS has replied that at the author’s request, it has no plans to make the full text public.
This is not an isolated incident. In September 2003, Jay Tarriela, along with seven other cadets, was alleged to have cheated in a quiz. We raise this two-decade-old accusation not to pass judgment, but to make one point: doubts about a public official’s integrity are dispelled only by transparency. Answered openly and verifiably, a doubt is laid to rest; met with silence or evasion, it only grows. Today’s controversy over the dissertation is replaying that same pattern.
Why has the dissertation remained unpublished to this day? Only three possibilities exist. First, it contains classified Philippine information — and if so, the problem is graver still: why was Philippine classified data submitted to, and vetted by, a foreign academic institution? That would be more than a personal lapse; it would be a potential national security concern that only the appropriate authorities can investigate. Second, the dissertation has academic problems of its own, and the “unavoidable circumstances” clause is being used as a shield against ordinary academic and public scrutiny. Third, the dissertation is sound, and it is the author himself who has chosen to withhold it — in which case we must ask: why would a Spokesperson who demands transparency from others refuse to be transparent about his own credentials? Whichever of the three is true, the public has a right to know.
We therefore respectfully call on Jay Tarriela to act with candor and conscience: to release the full text of his dissertation, or to disclose in full the specific “unavoidable circumstances” that justify its absence. We likewise call on the appropriate Philippine authorities to investigate whether Jay Tarriela transmitted classified material to a foreign academic institution.
Our people deserve public officials who are accountable to the people at all times, whose integrity is beyond question, whose credentials withstand scrutiny, and whose conduct strengthens rather than diminishes the institutions they serve. Filipinos deserve nothing less.
In the service of the Filipino people, PCG Spokesperson Jay Tarriela must release his doctoral dissertation and submit his credentials to full public scrutiny.
1,780
The Issue
We, the undersigned citizens, respectfully make two urgent calls. First, we call on the appropriate Philippine authorities — such as the Office of the Ombudsman, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), and the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA) — to investigate whether Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) Spokesperson Jay Tarriela transmitted classified information to a foreign academic institution. Second, we urge Jay Tarriela himself to immediately release the full text of his doctoral dissertation online. Our reasons are as follows.
The Office of the Spokesperson of the Philippine Coast Guard is no ordinary posting. The Spokesperson speaks on matters of national security, territorial integrity, and the rule of law at sea, and every statement shapes the public’s trust in the institution. That trust can stand only on credentials that withstand verification and conduct that withstands scrutiny. Article XI, Section 1 of the 1987 Constitution says it best: “Public office is a public trust. Public officers and employees must at all times be accountable to the people.”
Jay Tarriela completed his doctoral dissertation at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) in Japan in 2021 and earned his Ph.D. in Advanced Policy Studies in the same year. Under Japan’s Degree Regulations (Order No. 9 of 1953, as amended), doctoral degree holders are required, as a rule, to publish the full text of their dissertations online within one year. Only under “unavoidable circumstances” — typically pending patent applications or third-party confidential content — may the university permit the publication of the abstract alone, with the full text made available for perusal upon request.
Yet a direct check of the GRIPS Institutional Repository (https://grips.repo.nii.ac.jp/records/1820)shows the reality to be far more irregular than a routine invocation of that exception would warrant: the abstract and the results are downloadable by anyone, yet the full text alone remains unpublished. Of the 22 Ph.D. dissertations examined in 2020, the full texts of the other 21 are all openly accessible online; Jay Tarriela’s is the only one whose full text has not been made public and for which no explanation is on record. The petition starter has written to GRIPS repeatedly to ask why, and GRIPS has replied that at the author’s request, it has no plans to make the full text public.
This is not an isolated incident. In September 2003, Jay Tarriela, along with seven other cadets, was alleged to have cheated in a quiz. We raise this two-decade-old accusation not to pass judgment, but to make one point: doubts about a public official’s integrity are dispelled only by transparency. Answered openly and verifiably, a doubt is laid to rest; met with silence or evasion, it only grows. Today’s controversy over the dissertation is replaying that same pattern.
Why has the dissertation remained unpublished to this day? Only three possibilities exist. First, it contains classified Philippine information — and if so, the problem is graver still: why was Philippine classified data submitted to, and vetted by, a foreign academic institution? That would be more than a personal lapse; it would be a potential national security concern that only the appropriate authorities can investigate. Second, the dissertation has academic problems of its own, and the “unavoidable circumstances” clause is being used as a shield against ordinary academic and public scrutiny. Third, the dissertation is sound, and it is the author himself who has chosen to withhold it — in which case we must ask: why would a Spokesperson who demands transparency from others refuse to be transparent about his own credentials? Whichever of the three is true, the public has a right to know.
We therefore respectfully call on Jay Tarriela to act with candor and conscience: to release the full text of his dissertation, or to disclose in full the specific “unavoidable circumstances” that justify its absence. We likewise call on the appropriate Philippine authorities to investigate whether Jay Tarriela transmitted classified material to a foreign academic institution.
Our people deserve public officials who are accountable to the people at all times, whose integrity is beyond question, whose credentials withstand scrutiny, and whose conduct strengthens rather than diminishes the institutions they serve. Filipinos deserve nothing less.
In the service of the Filipino people, PCG Spokesperson Jay Tarriela must release his doctoral dissertation and submit his credentials to full public scrutiny.
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Petition created on September 8, 2026