Senator Risa Hontiveros on Monday, May 17, said Malacañang should stop trumpeting China’s aid and development assistance to the Philippines, saying the country doesn’t owe a huge debt of gratitude to Beijing.

Hontiveros said Japan remains the country’s top provider of official development assistance (ODA) and infrastructure development partner, followed by the Asian Development Bank, World Bank, and South Korea.

Despite Palace’s pivot to China, Beijing’s ODA only amounted to $600-million, according to the government’s Investor Relations Office report.

“Malacañang should stop misleading the public. Huwag nilang pagmukhaing ang Tsina ang nangunguna sa pagbigay ng aid at loans sa Pilipinas (They should stop making it appear that China is the leading nation that is giving aid and loans to the Philippines),” Hontiveros said in a statement.

She also pointed out that despite touting China as an “important ingredient” in the Duterte administration’s “Build, build, build” project, it shows that only nine (9) projects — out of 75 planned projects — under the program had started construction.

Hontiveros stressed this poor completion rate was already brought up in the Senate’s plenary deliberations on the proposed 2020 budget.

“Poor in business sense, poor in foreign relations, poor in standing ground against bullies,” she said of the Duterte government’s policy.

“Inaagaw na nga ng China ang teritoryo natin sa WPS, tapos, tayo pa daw ang may utang na loob? Tayo dito sa Pilipinas ang nalulugi sa inaasal ng Malacañang (China is already seizing our territories in the West Philippine Sea and yet we’re the ones who have a debt of gratitude? We Filipinos are the ones at the losing end with how Malacañang acts),” the senator lamented.

“Wala tayong utang na loob sa Tsina. Baka ang mga opisyal sa palasyo pa ang may utang na loob sa Beijing (We don’t owe China. Palace officials might be the one who have a debt of gratitude to Beijing),” she pointed out.

The lawmaker said it is the Chinese government that ought to be ashamed over the damages they incurred in the WPS region and pay the Philippines for the destruction they wrought in the country’s natural and maritime resources.

“Let’s not allow anyone, least of all our own officials, to tell us that we owe China a great deal. We must, at all times, put our country’s interests first,” Hontiveros said.