PRESIDENT Rodrigo R. Duterte and China have been on a quest of peace and prosperity for the Philippines, the region and the World.
From Day 1 of the Duterte administration, China and its president, Pres. Xi Jinping, has shown nothing but goodwill through respectful words, infrastructure donations and loans, investments and political acts such as supporting the Philippines against human right violations accusations.
Of course, there exists that dispute over some parts of the South China Sea which is being massively overplayed by the anti-Duterte and anti-China sectors of the Philippine political opposition, the mainstream media and the US-funded think tanks and academic personnel.
But that controversy is not exclusively with China as it also significantly and equally involves Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei. But it is really a molehill in the mountains of many other national concerns.
China has really made a gargantuan effort to assist the Philippines in the Covid-19 crisis and this has made a real impact in helping the Filipinos’ awareness of China’s goodwill.
Let us remember Pres. Duterte’s words on China’s vaccine donations and assistance, “Tumawag ako kay President Xi Jinping… iyong kasagsagan na noong walang dumating talaga… Tumawag ako, sabi ko ‘Mr. President I would like to ask for your help. Until now the Philippines is really at a loss of how to get the vaccines…” In response, Xi said “it’s okay we will help you…”
This good news is now reflected in the SWS survey reporting the Filipinos’ top vaccine preference is for Sinovac, the Chinese manufactured vaccine that has allowed the government to inoculate up to 2.5-million Filipinos since its first batch of donations arrived on February 28, 2021.
The latest SWS survey reported that 39 percent of Filipinos prefer Sinovac to other Covid-19 vaccines such as Pfizer which was a considerably far second at 32% despite that massive propaganda from the media about its claimed efficacy and the support it gets from officials like Philippine ambassador to Washington Jose Manuel “Babes” Romualdez who has promised Pfizer deliveries since October 2020 but only a trickle has arrived to this day.
By the end of May, Sinovac would have already delivered over 5.5-million doses of its vaccines with at least 3-million a month scheduled until the end of 2021 for a total of at least 25-million doses.
Sinovac’s efficacy has been confirmed in real world study and reported by Bloomberg which used to be dismissive of Sinovac, saying:
“Indonesia tracked 128,290 health workers in capital city Jakarta from January to March and found that the vaccine protected 98 percent of them from death and 96 percent from hospitalization as soon as seven days after the second dose, Pandji Dhewantara, a Health Ministry official who oversaw the study, said in a Wednesday press conference.”
The SWS survey, however, also reported one perplexing finding, that the majority of Filipinos prefer vaccines made in the USA which clearly contradicts the finding about Sinovac which is made in China.
One explanation for this is the confusion among some of the respondents about vaccine brands and countries of origin, but there is no question that Filipinos know Sinovac is a Chinese brand. This, however, should not be a problem as the important thing is Filipinos are getting vaccinated.
Let us remember Pres. Duterte’s words on China’s vaccine donations and assistance, “Tumawag ako kay President Xi Jinping… iyong kasagsagan na noong walang dumating talaga… Tumawag ako, sabi ko ‘Mr. President I would like to ask for your help. Until now the Philippines is really at a loss of how to get the vaccines…” In response, Xi said “it’s okay we will help you…”
In another occasion Duterte said, “”China never asked for anything. China has been giving us everything but never asked anything from us actually,” Duterte said in a press briefing. “Ang pinakamabigat ang Amerikano, ang hinihingi nila ang base” (military base).
From hereon, there is nothing but good news and good impressions that the Filipino public will have about Duterte’s policy towards China and about China, that augurs well for the future when we will need China for the economic recovery as their goodwill will help all of us overcome the economic reversal from the COVID-19 effects – restore tourism and trade, exports and inward investments.
(Samahan si Ka Mentong Laurel at mga panauhin sa “Power Thinks” tuwing Miyerkules @6pm Live Global Talk News Radio (GTNR) sa Facebook at sa Talk News TV sa You Tube; at tuwing Linggo 8 to 10am sa RP1 738khz AM sa radyo.)