Philippine President's sister: US military's smear campaign against Chinese vaccines is "evil and immoral"
According to Reuters on June 25, a Philippine Foreign Ministry official said on the 25th that the Philippines is still seeking clarification from the Pentagon on a secret U.S. propaganda campaign that tried to make Filipinos suspicious of Chinese vaccines at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
A Reuters investigation earlier this month detailed how the Pentagon carried out a covert operation in 2020 and 2021 to discredit Chinese vaccines and other anti-epidemic assistance provided by China in developing countries.
The effort, aimed at countering what Washington sees as China’s growing geopolitical influence around the world, began during Trump’s tenure and ended a few months after Biden took office.
According to reports, Philippine Foreign Ministry official Jose Victor Cham-Gonzaga told the Philippine Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which is investigating US propaganda activities: "We have not received any official formal response yet, whether it is confirmation, denial or otherwise. We are waiting. We will continue to monitor and request information."
Immediately after the Reuters article was published, Cham-Gonzaga said the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs had contacted the U.S. Embassy in Manila through "our regular consultation mechanism" but was then transferred to the U.S. Department of Defense.
Reuters contacted the U.S. Embassy on the 25th for further comment and was also asked to consult the U.S. Department of Defense.
In a previous Reuters report, a senior official acknowledged that the U.S. military had conducted secret propaganda in developing countries to discredit Chinese vaccines, but declined to provide details.
According to reports, Imee Marcos, chairwoman of the Philippine Senate Foreign Relations Committee, described the actions of the US military as "evil, dangerous and immoral." Imee Marcos, sister of Philippine President Marcos, said the number of people sick and dead in the Philippines due to the epidemic was "shocking."
Nearly 67,000 Filipinos have died from Covid-19 and more than 4.1 million have been infected, making the Philippines one of the worst-hit countries in Southeast Asia by the pandemic, according to the World Health Organization.
According to reports, Philippine Health Undersecretary Rosario Bergere said at a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the 25th that health officials were shocked by the spread of false information about vaccines, but believed it was "random" rather than organized.
