Ganansya para sa bakuna? Rufus Rodriguez questions timing of China’s COVID-19 vaccination as West PH Sea incursion continues

By Billy Begas

Deputy Speaker and Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez on Wednesday asked the government if the massing of Chinese vessels in the West Philippine Sea is connected with the COVID-19 vaccines donated by China to the country.

Rodriguez said more than 200 Chinese fishing vessels anchored in Juan Felipe Reef off Bataraza town in Palawan within eight days from the delivery of the initial 600,000 COVID-19 shots donated by China.

He said the jabs were delivered on Feb. 28, and the rollout started on March 1, while the presence of the huge Chinese fishing flotilla in Julian Felipe Reef was discovered on March 7.

“This sequence of events makes many of us wonder if there is a connection between the vaccine donation and China’s latest incursion in the West Philippine Sea, if we did not exchange marine resources for vaccine,” he said.

Rodriguez stressed that Juan Felipe Reef, like the Chinese-occupied Scarborough Shoal off Zambales and Pangasinan in the north, “is part of our country’s exclusive economic and exploration zone (EEZ) under international law, and all resources in that area rightfully belong to the Filipino people.”

“We are grateful to China for the donated vaccine but we must condemn in the strongest possible terms this newest intrusion into our EEZ. The donation should not give them reason to enter our territory and violate our territorial integrity,” he added.

If Beijing’s claim that their fishing flotilla took shelter in the reef due to rough sea conditions, Rodriguez said the vessels should have left the area after few days.

“What are their intentions there?” he asked.

Rodriguez reiterated his appeal for Congress to pass his bill defining the country’s maritime areas and territory for China to take notice of such delineation.

He said the measure will also “counter the recent Chinese law allowing the Chinese Coast Guard to fire at perceived intruders in the entire South China Sea, which illegally includes our West Philippine Sea and a large part of our EEZ, from up north in Luzon to down south in the Palawan area.”

Aside from its internal and archipelagic waters and territorial sea, the bill includes the 200-mile EEZ that is measured from its shoreline and its continental shelf.

Scarborough Shoal (Bajo de Masinloc) and Juan Felipe Reef are inside the Philippine EEZ.

Source: Latest Politics News Today (Politics.com.ph)