MANILA – President Rodrigo Duterte has been promised by his Chinese counterpart that the Philippines “as a friendly neighbor” will be prioritized when China is able to develop a vaccine against COVID-19.
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said Friday that Duterte got the assurance from Chinese leader Xi Jinping in a late Thursday telephone call that lasted 38 minutes.
“President Xi reiterated China’s commitment to the international community to make any vaccine it develops a global public good and that as a friendly neighbor, China certainly considers the Philippines as a priority,” Roque said.
President Duterte, for his part, told Xi the need to cooperate with research trials aimed at developing a vaccine as he said that the Philippines will participate in the clinical trials by the last quarter of the year.
The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases has recently approved the Philippines’ collaboration with some Chinese and Taiwanese organizations for the trials.
The vaccine being developed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Sinopharm and the Wuhan Institute of Virology has entered the second phase of clinical trials, with 96 people being given the experimental vaccine.
“While noting China’s vaccine development program, President Duterte emphasized the imperative of making vaccines available and affordable to all countries, including the Philippines,” Roque said.
Apart from vaccine, Duterte and Xi also talked about their countries’ “crucial strategies to restart economies under the new normal.”
“President Duterte received President Xi’s full support on ensuring supply chain connectivity particularly in critical medical supplies and equipment, promoting the free flow of goods and resuming and completing priority infrastructure cooperation projects in the Philippines,” the Palace said. (With Associated Press/PN)
