June 9, Philippine-China Friendship Day.

THE Philippine is still in the midst of the economic and employment crisis brought about by the prevailing COVID-19 crisis. Almost every other day I get Messenger texts pleading for financial assistance from jobless acquaintances and former employees of the family business.

In one case, a former employee of my wife asks for any kind of job to do. My ‘entrepreneuring’ wife who has among her repertoire of businesses takes landscaping projects considered hiring him for a landscaping job with a friend in the royal family of Brunei if the deal pushes through.

It’s really tough for millions of our people these days, but we should hope and believe it won’t be too much longer before the deprivation and gloom starts lifting, and it is with China’s help that we can lift our spirits in the expectation that there will be an early herd immunity from the Covid-19 virus.

China has donated and delivered orders going over 5.5-million doses of vaccine by the end of May, and around 3-million doses to arrive every month starting June. The entire order of the Philippine government for Sinovac is 15-million doses for this year.

Other vaccines are taking time to arrive and at minimal quantities initially. Some vaccine producers in the U.S. have made promises through the Philippine ambassador to the U.S. Babes Romualdez but there are doubts that they can deliver quantities promised and when.

Secondly, China has been the only good source of economic news for the Philippines through 2020 and the early months of 2021, and it is good to be reminded of these developments in time for the celebration of June 9, the ‘Philippine-China Friendship Day.’

The Philippines’ DFA and the Chinese Embassy in Manila have the commemoration of PHL-China Friendship Day on this date, but this year is special as it is the 46th year of this happy occasion that President Marcos started in 1975 with the signing of the communique establishing formal diplomatic relations between the two countries.

The joint communique was signed by President Ferdinand E. Marcos and the late Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai in Beijing on that date in 1975, but it was President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo that signed Proclamation No. 148, s. 2002 declaring June 9 as Filipino-Chinese Friendship Day.

The Chinese Embassy in Manila posted on its FB page some salient facts about the harvest of good news from the relationship: “In 2020… creating a large number of jobs for the Filipinos, but also effectively promoting the economic recovery of the Philippines … striving to become an upper middle-income economy by 2022.

“In the first ten months of 2020, China remained to be the Philippines’ largest trading partner and largest source of imports and leaped to the second largest export market of the Philippines.  According to the data from the Philippine side, the Philippine monthly exports to China in September and October increased by 43.3 percent and 12.7 percent year-on-year respectively, showing a sound momentum of growth.

During the Third Import Expo in 2020, Chinese buyers signed a letter of intent to purchase fruits worth up to US $200 million with Philippine companies in one go.

“In March 2021, China becomes the Philippines’ top export destination!

According to the Philippine Statistics Authority, exports grew by 31 percent as of March this year. This was a tremendous rebound from last year’s and is an excellent indication of economic recovery. China rose as the Philippines’ top destination, with 16 percent of the total merchandise exported to China.”

Imagine, Philippines exports to China growing despite theCOVID-19 crisis, that’s thanks to China’s spectacular economic growth of 18.3 percent in the first quarter of 2021.

Filipinos can’t find such good news with any other country, especially the U.S. which had not sent a single dose of vaccine of official assistance to the Philippines so far!

The celebration of the Filipino-Chinese Friendship Day this year will be memorable in history because of the contrast between China and the Philippines successful cooperation endeavors while the U.S. fades as a benefactor and friend which has created more friction than friendship with the government of President Duterte.

At the same time, 2021 marks the year that the “last hurrah” of the rabble-rousing anti-Duterte and anti-China elements in the Philippines would be heard before the facts and the objective truths exposed the falsity of their claims about the “arbitration” in a non-UN and non-court body that is actually meaningless and only produced a “piece of paper” as President Duterte referred to it.

Let us all join hands with the Duterte government and the Chinse Embassy in celebrating this year’s Filipino-Chinse Friendship Day and work hard in the months ahead for the national economic recovery.

(Herman Tiu Laurel is an author, writer and founder of the Phil-BRICS Strategic Studies think tank. Join his: “Power Thinks” with Ka Mentong Laurel and guests – Every Wednesday 6pm Live on Global Talk News Radio [GTNR] on Facebook and Talk News TV on YouTube; and Every Sunday 8 to 10am on RP1 738 on your AM radio dial).