Palace: Diplomatic protest over China coast guard law won't affect vaccine purchase plans

Malacañang on Thursday expressed confidence that the diplomatic protest filed by the Philippines over China’s new coast guard law would not affect the country’s plans to purchase Chinese-developed COVID-19 vaccines.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. on Wednesday said Manila protested Beijing’s passage of a law that allows its coast guard to fire on foreign vessels amid competing claims in the South China Sea. Locsin described the legislation as a “verbal threat of war to any country” that defies it.

Prior to this development, the Philippines secured 25 million doses of Sinovac’s COVID-19 vaccine while China committed to donate 500,000 doses.

“Wala pong epekto ‘yan dahil ibang usapin naman ang bakuna. Ang bakuna po is actually a humanitarian act of the entire planet Earth in response to a humanitarian disaster,” presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said at a news conference.

Still, the Palace welcomed the filing of the diplomatic protest.

“[T]his is consistent with our position that while states can enact laws as part of their sovereignty, they must do so in compliance with the UN [United Nations] Charter – prohibiting the use of force unless by way of self-defense or when authorized by the [UN] Security Council,” Roque said.

Roque said the protest would prove that the Philippines is “fully committed to the rule of law and will assert all its rights available under existing principles of international law to defend its interests.”

China's claim to nearly the entire South China Sea, including areas under the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone, was declared illegal in July 2016 by the Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration following a lawsuit filed by Manila in 2013.

The decision did not stop the Philippines, under President Rodrigo Duterte, from seeking better economic and trade ties with China, which ignored the ruling. —KBK, GMA News