President Duterte preferred to have a COVID-19 vaccine from Russia and China than other companies.
President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday said that he preferred to have a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine from Russia and China than other companies.
This, as President Duterte said that several pharmaceutical companies were asking the country to pay in advance for COVID-19 vaccines that were still under development.
In a televised briefing from Malacañang on Monday, President Duterte slammed the “profit, profit, profit” mindset of Western firms. According to President Duterte, the “profit, profit, profit” mindset was the one thing that was wrong with Western firms.
With this, President Duterte said that the government would give preference to China and Russia, provided, that the COVID-19 vaccine from these countries was as good as any other COVID-19 vaccine in the market.
“Kung sabihin mo na, sige wala pa ‘yung vaccine, there is nothing with finality and you want us to make the reservation by depositing money, you must be crazy”, President Duterte said.
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President Duterte cited that Philippine laws prohibited the government from making advance payments to COVID-19 vaccine that was “non-existent” or “to be produced as yet” by the manufacturers.
The Philippines had recorded 265,888 total COVID-19 cases with 4,699 newly-reported cases as of 4:00 p.m. of September 14, 2020.
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