Wake up!

Filipinos of the pro-imperialist kind do have a short memory. Consequently, they have paid a neighbor’s benevolent act with ingratitude. When the Philippines scrambled for COVID-19 vaccines at the onset and height of the pandemic, only one country consistently stood by us.

No, it was not America but its nemesis, China.

The coronavirus claimed the lives of more than 65,000 Filipinos. Were it not for the timely intervention of the Asian superpower, the death toll would have been higher. Conversely, were it not for the anti-Chinese propaganda systematically waged by the United States, a significant number of Filipino fatalities would still be alive today.

Thus, I am studying the possibility of filing a legal case against American government officials responsible for the disinformation campaign under the Federal Claims Tort Act (FTCA). The law provides compensation for individuals who have suffered personal injury, death or property loss/damage caused by the negligent or wrongful act or omission of an employee of the federal government (US Environmental Protection Agency).

China’s SOS response

In most likelihood, some of these pro-colonialists owe their lives to Sinovac and Sinopharm. I was the designated spokesperson of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID), which managed and contained the viral outbreak in the country. As we raced against time, we tried our best to expeditiously procure vaccines for medical frontliners, senior citizens, persons with comorbidities and the general population.

The Duterte government repeatedly sent an SOS to the US, the United Kingdom and other pharmaceutical manufacturing nations. However, these countries prioritized their people and preferred wealthy economies concerning the vaccine rollout. Who would not want to get Pfizer, Moderna or AstraZeneca shots? But we only had access to the vaccines two years after the pandemic hit the country.

Truth be told, China was the only one that responded to our emergency call. It is a result of the friendship that former president Rodrigo Duterte and President Xi Jinping forged. In February 2021, the China-donated Sinovac was the first vaccine to reach the Philippines.

As attested by Chinese Ambassador Huang Xilin, the Chinese were the first to donate test kits and dispatch an anti-pandemic medical expert team to our country. They also allowed our military aircraft and vessels to transport medical supplies from China (Manila Times).

By August 2021, China provided 25.5 million doses to the Philippines through government-to-government donations and commercial procurement. In comparison, American-made vaccines became available in the Philippines in early 2022.

Yes, my Americanophile friends. Uncle Sam was an absentee friend, ally and partner for the most part. While the ‘Americans first’ approach towards immunization is understandable, the refusal of the US to extend an immediate lifeline to Filipinos – given its surplus vaccines – is questionable.

A damning Reuters investigative report disclosed that the US practically forced developing countries to pay a high price for unused vaccines. It placed no restrictions on what pharmaceutical companies could charge.

US anti-vax psyops

Worse, our colonial master did not give a damn that thousands of Filipinos died and hundreds of thousands suffered from the disease just to fulfill an insidious agenda: discredit Chinese vaccines and destroy the Red Dragon’s international standing. It is unforgivable. First, they failed to assist us. Second, they disparaged the only vaccine available to highly vulnerable Filipinos at that time. Imagine the number of people saved had the US ceased its demonization of China during the pandemic.

Yes, again, my Sinophobic friends. Insecure about the Philippine pivot to China during the Duterte administration, the United States wanted to shatter the close ties with our number one economic partner. Thus, sacrificed at the altar of America’s hegemonic fixation in the Indo-Pacific was the Filipino public.

And many Filipinos did die from vaccine hesitancy because of the misleading propaganda against Chinese brands, according to my former IATF-EID colleague, Dr. Edsel Salvana (Manila Bulletin, January 2023). Despite the existence of scientific data, many Filipinos still fell prey to the disinformation campaign on Sinovac and Sinopharm jabs.

The Reuters report points to the US Defense Department for masterminding an elaborate anti-vax campaign between 2020 and 2021 in Southeast Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. Ignoring the strong opposition from their diplomatic counterparts, American military officials pushed ahead with an elaborate psychological operation (psyops).

It sowed distrust and fear of China-formulated COVID-19 shots among many Asian citizens. The Pentagon achieved this by utilizing fake social media accounts on multiple platforms. It justified the secret disinformation campaign as a counter adversary to Beijing’s malign influence attack against Washington. The former has blamed the latter for the global pandemic (Military.com).

Lessons learned

Clearly, the Americans have no qualms about weaponizing the internet and social media to bring down their perceived enemies. As in the case of the clandestine operation against China, they do not care if the psyops lead to the loss of lives. And they are not embarrassed to employ the same dangerous strategy to escalate the West Philippine Sea crisis. Therefore, we must wake up to reality.

To paraphrase former United Nations weapons inspector and US Marine intelligence officer Scott Ritter, the US cannot win in a sustained conflict against a peer-level force like China. It is leading the Philippines towards a proxy war with their rival nation. For us, an unwinnable armed conflict is a recipe for disaster.

Let us not be fooled into thinking that America is our friend. Look at what they did to the Ukrainians. They are dying by thousands by the day. Friends do not abandon each other in the midst of a war. America has never been a genuine ally of Ukraine or the Philippines. Otherwise, it will not treat our country like a dispensable tool. It is here to use us until there is nothing left. And then it will discard us on the trash heap of history.  

With the Americans losing the skills set necessary to carry out diplomacy, we must be relentless in pressuring the Marcos government to continuously engage China in a peaceful dialogue. We, the sovereign Filipino people, must take control of our nation’s future.