Duterte: “If there is an excess of supply sa inyo, pakitulong naman dito sa bayan ko”
(Eagle News) — President Rodrigo Duterte appealed to the United States government for more vaccines against COVID-19 to be given to the Philippines if they have excess supplies.
In his “Talk to the People” on Monday, Aug. 16, Duterte said that he understood that the COVID-19 situation is worsening everywhere especially with the increased transmission of the very aggressive Delta variant.
But he said that he would appreciate if the US could give the country more of its life-saving vaccines as the Philippines continued to have over 10,000 COVID-19 cases this month.
The 75-year old Philippine leader said the country is not asking for free vaccines, and could buy the jabs from the US. He said that the Philippine government had saved money for the purchase of more vaccines.
“I am just asking America to give us more kung mayroon lang sila. We are not — I know that mauna kami — or kami muna, we first before you,” President Duterte said during his weekly public address on government response to the pandemic.
“We understand it and we accept it. But if there is an excess of supply sa inyo, pakitulong naman dito sa bayan ko. We have the money, we buy, we do not ask. We have saved money for this event.”
-US donates over 3 million Moderna doses to PHL-
The US government has donated more than 3 million doses of Moderna vaccine to the Philippines through the World Health Organization-led COVAX vaccine-sharing program.
A total of 4,296,060 Moderna vaccines have already been delivered to the country, of which 3,000,060 doses were donated by the US government through COVAX facility and the rest are procured. The Philippine government and the private sector ordered 20 million doses of Moderna vaccine.
In July, the US also sent 3,240,850 doses of Johnson & Johnson (J&J) vaccine to the Philippines. This was part of the Biden administration’s commitment to distribute 80 million vaccines for free around the world.
On the other hand, China has so far donated one million of Sinovac vaccines.
On Aug. 11, some 813,150 doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccines procured by the Philippine government from the US were also delivered.
Of these vaccine doses,102,960 shots were delivered to Cebu City, while another 102,960 doses were shipped to Davao City. The rest of the doses were allocated for Metro Manila and other areas in the country with high COVID cases.
It is the third tranche of government-procured Pfizer doses delivered to the country by the American vaccine manufacturer. A total of 1,751,490 Pfizer doses purchased by the government have been delivered to the country as of Aug. 12.
The Philippines so far has around 44 million vaccine doses for its vaccination rollout. It targets to have more than 140 million doses by the end of the year. However as more countries experience a surge in COVID-19 cases and deaths due to the Delta variant, vaccine supplies in the world are becoming tighter.
(Eagle News Service)
