MANILA, Philippines – Opposition Senator Leila de Lima has urged President Rodrigo Duterte to stop being Beijing’s propaganda machine after the chief executive defended China from criticisms regarding the COVID-19 pandemic.
De Lima said in a handwritten statement on Wednesday that Duterte should refrain from using his late-night public addresses just to downplay China’s mishandling of the health crisis.
“His subservience to the Chinese government should have allowed us to be informed earlier and prepared better. But it did not. The opposite happened. He bought into the China propaganda—hook, line, and sinker,” the lady senator explained.
“By the time he appeared to be moving finally, we were already playing catch up. No amount of propaganda will change that,” she added.
Duterte on Monday said that he received a note from Chinese president Xi Jinping, thanking the Philippines for helping erase the stigma that China suffered after COVID-19 was found to have originated from Wuhan City of Hubei province.
The President defended China from accusations that the virus was made in a laboratory — and not naturally-existing as earlier reported. Also, he hinted that the Philippines can be prioritized in case China develops a vaccine or an antibody against the latest coronavirus strain.
“It’s not their fault that the virus originated from them. Who would want to invent a microbe to kill humankind, including your own people? So they are saying that they are ready, and I’d like to thank President Xi Jinping for his support,” he added. “If it is from China, then you would have no problem, I think we can have a priority anytime.”
Recently, a study in China speculated that this edition of the coronavirus may be a by-product of laboratories, which could have been accidentally released in Wuhan. The paper pointed two laboratories that lie near the Wuhan wet market, which was tagged as the source of the disease.
However, De Lima said it is ironic for Duterte to still buy into China’s statements when the rest of the world believes that China’s failure to act responsibly and inform other countries of the impending outbreak is to blame for the high cases around the world.
“Alam na ng buong mundo ang kasinungalingan at kalokohan ng China sa nangyayaring krisis sa COVID-19. Naghahanda na ang mga gobyerno ng ibang bansa na pagbayarin ang China sa kanilang kasinungalingan. Pero si G. Duterte, tuloy pa rin ang pagyuko at pagsamba sa kanila. Pag hindi pa sya tumigil, baka madamay pa tayo sa magiging maaaring parusa sa China,” she added.
De Lima and Duterte have been at odds even before the latter ascended to the presidency. The Senator has been critical of Duterte’s drug war from Davao to the national level.
Currently, De Lima is detained at the Philippine National Police’s Custodial Center in Camp Crame for drug-related charges when she was still justice secretary. But despite her detention, De Lima has still voiced criticism of the current administration’s response to the COVID-19 outbreak.
As of now, Department of Health officials said that there are now 5,453 infected patients — 349 of which have already died while at least 353 have recovered.
Worldwide, over 1.98 million individuals have been infected, while 126,834 have died from the disease and 484,109 have recovered from it.