The Philippine Embassy in Washington D.C. has distanced itself from a planned rally to be staged near the White House by a group of Filipino-Americans pressing for US President Joe Biden to facilitate the delivery of American-made COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) vaccines to the Philippines.
In an advisory issued on May 7, 2021, the Embassy said it has come to their attention that an email from Eric Lachica, volunteer organizer of a group called US Medicare Philippines, was circulated last week within the Filipino community and “claiming to have full coordination with the Embassy on activities under the ambit of his organization”.
“The Embassy informs the Filipino Community that it is not associated with, nor coordinates any of the activities organized by Mr. Eric Lachica. The Embassy also does not endorse and is completely uninvolved in the rally being planned by Mr. Lachica on May 15,” the Embassy said.
In an email blast sent over the weekend, Lachica announced at least two forthcoming activities of their organization, the May 13th Zoom coalition action forum meeting with Philippine Embassy Deputy Chief of Mission Renato Villa, and the May 15th White House Rally to be held at the Black Lives Matter Plaza on 16th Street in the US capital. Lachica said the Washington DC police have already approved their permit.
Last April 29, Villa was also the main resource person at a virtual meeting organized by the same group where he provided updates on the Philippine government’s vaccine procurement efforts in the United States.
According to Lachica, their activities aim to “overcome the reluctance of the Biden administration” to allocate its excess vaccines to countries like India which is suffering the worst outbreak, and the Philippines, a long-time US ally.
At the bottom part of his e-mail, Lachica said wrote: “In coordination with the Philippine Embassy, Vicky Navarro of the Philippine Humanitarian Coalition, Dr. Nathalie Quion of the Philippine Medical Association WDC, Carol Robles of the Philippine Nurses Association America, Ms. Loida Nicolas-Lewis of the US Filipinos for Good Governance and 60 plus community leaders.”
While the Embassy lauded the initiative and spirit of volunteerism of persons and groups on the vaccine delivery issue, it disowned having a hand in coordinating “any activities of the Filipino Community in this regard.”
The Embassy’s statement prompted Lachica to issue an apology for his action concerning the May 15 White House rally, which he said was apparently “misunderstood or misperceived” by certain members of the public.
“May I clarify that the Philippine Embassy does not ‘coordinate with’ or ‘endorse’ our planned May 15 White House Rally which is a completely Filipino American community initiative and event,” he said.