Travel Ban: Health security over diplomacy

In the current state of the world, a lot of threats have emerged in the last few decades that threatened human existence. Threats of war, famine, pestilence, and the ever-alarming climate change crisis have us all concerned over the future of the world. Just recently, the world, yet again, faces a pandemic in Novel coronavirus (NCoV), a new respiratory virus first identified in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. It is a newly-discovered strain of the coronavirus like SARS and MERS-CoV that kills humans.

The World Health Organization stated that as of early February, it was estimated that the virus has infected more than 24,500 people worldwide. China authorities reported that there are already 490 deaths mostly in Hubei Province. There are 26 other countries who are currently affected by the said virus; Belgium, Cambodia, Canada, Hong Kong, Macau, Finland, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Nepal, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, UAE, United Kingdom, United States, and Vietnam.

In the rising unrest due to this soon-to-be pandemic, the government of the Philippines issued a temporary ban of flights to and from some parts of China. This is to alleviate the fears of the public and ensure the health security of the Filipino people. Fourteen other countries have taken the same course of action. However, this step has received a lot of criticisms due to the issue of xenophobia and racism.

As international studies students, we consider health security as an important action in protecting our own people. We cannot afford a large-scale threat such as this virus to spread in our country considering that the Philippines is still a developing country and as is, still ill-equipped to handle such a very potent health threat. Also, given that the Philippines is a third-world country and that our health services only usually cater to the 1% elite and is almost non-existent for the majority of the population, a health threat like this could realistically wipe out our whole nation. This step of banning flights from some parts of China, although was implemented very late by the government, is a huge preventative measure to ensure the nation’s health security. If only possible, we would even like to suggest banning all flights to and from ALL parts of China, if only to be very prude about this measure. We believe that this measure does not and will not affect our diplomatic relations with China. Even Russia, as a close ally of China even closed their borders way ahead of us.  This shows that this step is not an act of rejection that may be detrimental to our relationship with China but merely a measure to ensure the survival of our people.

As stated by the World Health Organization, it is crucial that diplomats in all countries should understand the significance of international health agreements and compliance with international law. This is a mere step to protect ourselves and is not an issue about race as peddled by rumormongers. This is not a hinder to diplomatic partnership but it is a measure that prioritizes the health of Filipino people in accordance with the Philippine Constitution Article 3, Section 1 (The right to life).

Louise Michelle A. Mondejar and Jade Jared P. Rendon

Bachelor of Arts in International Studies

University of San Jose-Recoletos