The Philippines' filing of a diplomatic protest over China's passage of law authorizing its coast guard to use force against foreign vessels in the disputed waters would not affect the government's procurement of Chinese vaccines against coronavirus disease, Malacanang said on Thursday.

In a televised press briefing, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said the Duterte administration will continue to defend its interest in the West Philippine Sea or the South China Sea.

"It has no effect because the vaccine is a different issue. The vaccine is actually a humanitarian act of the entire planet Earth in response to a humanitarian disaster," he said.

China has promised to donate 500,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine to the Philippines. The Duterte administration has also secured 25 million doses of China's Sinovac vaccine with initial delivery of 50,000 doses next month.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr., in filing the diplomatic protest against China, has said that while enacting law is a sovereign prerogative, but since the area involved is the South China Sea, the coast guard law was a "verbal thereat of war to any country that defied the law; which, if unchallenged, is submission to it."

China has been claiming almost the entire South China Sea, including those areas within the exclusive economic zones of other countries, like the Philippines.

Roque said the Palace supports the diplomatic protest that the Department of Foreign Affairs filed against China.

"We welcome the diplomatic protest, of course, of the DFA and this will prove that the Philippines is fully committed to the rule of law and will assert all its right available under existing principles of international law to defend its interests," he said.

He reiterated that the United Nations Charter prohibits the use of force unless by way of self-defense or when authorized by the Security Council.

"Additionally, the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea prohibits even the arrest of illegal fishermen. If the arrest is being prohibited and the (one arrested) needs to be released upon posting of bond, why will you shoot? So, there is also an issue about breach of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea," Roque said.

The new Chinese law allows its coast guard to take all necessary measures, including the use of weapons when national sovereignty, sovereign rights, and jurisdiction are being illegally infringed upon by international organizations or individuals at sea. Celerina Monte/DMS