U.S. Out of the Philippines! Stop Playing With Our Family’s Lives!
Released June 17, 2024
GABRIELA USA is outraged by the recent news of the US anti-vax campaign in the Philippines which aimed to dissuade Filipinos from receiving life-saving treatment during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. A Reuters article exposed the US’ secret campaign to spread disinformation about the Sinovac vaccine from China, one of the very few vaccines available to the Philippines at the time. The campaign utilized fake social media accounts to spread lies and influence the minds of the Filipino people - claiming that the vaccine, masks, and PPE were all “fake”. As a result of this, the Philippines had the worst rates of inoculation in Southeast Asia and many lives were unnecessarily lost.
While the official death toll in the Philippines from a published report in December 2023 estimates over 66,000 COVID deaths, the actual data is unclear as the country’s healthcare system is underdeveloped, and there is lack of reporting of how the virus has impacted far flung rural provinces. The Philippine government has neglected to address the COVID outbreaks - free vaccines were not accessible and in many cases, the people had to pay for receiving both tests and vaccines. Women and children continue to be impacted by the pandemic and the ineffective health care system. These conditions force families to seek refuge abroad. Here in the US, an overwhelming majority of migrant Filipinos are women, many working within the healthcare industry.
Filipinos were dying from COVID at high rates, both in the US and in the Philippines, and with this operation aimed at swaying public opinion against preventative measures like vaccines, there is no real measure for how many unnecessary deaths happened at the hands of the US Department of Defense and the Pentagon. In a country that does not have the industrial capacity to address a deadly global pandemic, low rates of vaccination = mass death.
The US’ Operation Warp Speed put an “America first” policy on how vaccines were distributed to developing countries, keeping prices high and waiting until Americans were vaccinated first and only giving leftover vaccines to its so-called “partners” like the Philippines. The US’ insecurity in its geopolitical influence over the Asia Pacific continues to put Filipino lives at risk, treating them as simply collateral damage for its ‘Pivot to Asia’ strategy.
Filipino women truly bore the brunt of the COVID pandemic. Whether in the hospitals where they work as frontline responders to patients or in the home where they play a key role in ensuring the family is safe and healthy, Filipino women’s lives were sacrificed and explained away as just a side effect of this new form of Cold War between the U.S. and China.
We see the US and China’s true intentions - they have no interest in genuinely helping the Filipino people and instead seek to profit off of them, taking advantage of the inaccessible healthcare system. Filipino women and gender oppressed people alongside the rest of the country are at the crosshairs of the war between the US and China. The Filipino people do not need to rely on the US nor China to develop our industries and health systems. The Filipino people do not need more militarization and warfare - what is needed is a pro-people society which prioritizes the health and well being of the people, instead of continuing to squeeze profits off of them. We call on all people to fight for our country’s sovereignty through advancing the national democratic movement for a free and genuinely sovereign Philippines!