No amount of badmouthing will apparently make China lose favor with Malacañang.

The allegation of a retired Supreme Court justice that China's donation of coronavirus vaccines sought to soften the blow of its incursion into local waters was just a figment of his imagination, according to a Palace official.

Presidential spokesman Harry Roque instead recognized China's vaccine donation as humanitarian aid to the Philippines during these challenging times arising from the coronavirus pandemic.

"Didiretsuhin ko kayo, guni-guni lang po iyan ni Justice (Antonio) Carpio (I will frank with you. That's just the imagination of Justice Carpio)," Roque said over government radio Thursday, March 25.

In a recent television interview, Carpio claimed that it was possible that China was trying to "soften the blow" of encroaching into the West Philippine Sea by donating vaccines to the country. He has cautioned against falling for the alleged public relations move of China to appease the country.

Roque however highlighted the crucial contribution of China to the country's vaccine rollout. He said the initial 600,000 doses of Sinovac vaccines donated by China allowed the government to start administering the life-saving shots to health workers across the country early this month.

"Alam ninyo po sa panahon ng pandemya na wala namang umasa na biglang magkakaroon ng ganitong pandemya ay importante po sa atin iyong pakikipagkapwa, iyong pagiging humanitarian (You know no one expected we will suddenly have this pandemic. It is important for us to have fellowship and be humanitarian during this time)," Roque said.

"At naniniwala po tayo na itong donasyon galing sa Tsina ay kabahagi po ng humanitarian effort ng Tsina. At kung hindi naman po talaga dumating iyong mga bakuna ng Tsina, eh wala sana tayong napaunang nagamit na bakuna (And we believe the donation from China is part of the humanitarian effort of China. If the Chinese vaccines did not arrive in the country, we would not have administered the first vaccines)," he added.

In addition to the 600,00 doses that arrived last month, China delivered 400,000 more doses of Sinovac vaccines to Manila Wednesday, March 24. The total vaccine doses donated by China have now reached 1 million.

"Ang katotohanan po eh ay isang milyon ng Sinovac ang ating unang ginamit at ito po ngayon ay pinakikinabangan ng ating mga kababayan (The truth is we first used one million Sinovac vaccines that benefited our countrymen)," Roque said.

Last weekend, a government task force guarding the West Philippine Sea raised concern over the presence of over 200 Chinese vessels, believed to be manned by maritime militia, at the Julian Felipe Reef. The incident prompted the Department of Foreign Affairs to file a diplomatic protest against China.

The Palace announced Thursday that President Duterte raised concern about the ships' presence and pledged to protect the country's territory during a recent meeting with Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Huang Xilian.

The envoy made a "personal visit" to the President to greet him on his upcoming birthday, according to Roque. Duterte will turn 76 on March 28.

Roque said the President also mentioned to the Chinese ambassador the country's arbitral award that nullified China's excess claims in the area.

The Palace official however later said there was no real controversy from the presence of the ships since they were not insisting on staying in the area. Given the friendly ties between the two nations, he said they expect the vessels to move out from the area when the sea conditions improve.

The Chinese embassy in Manila earlier denied the presence of Chinese maritime militia vessels, saying these were merely fishing boats taking shelter from rough seas.