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Manila, Philippines – President Rodrigo Duterte told the United States on Saturday that he would go ahead with his plan to terminate the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) unless he could provide the Philippines with vaccines against the novel coronavirus.
Duterte noted that the VFA was on the brink of termination, and US troops would have to leave the Philippines unless he allows them to stay.
Duterte ordered the termination of the VFA earlier this year, but suspended the six-month countdown before the military agreement expires.
The agreement allows US soldiers to conduct military exercises in the Philippines.
“If they can’t administer a minimum of 20 million vaccines, they better leave. There is no vaccine, don’t stay here, ”Duterte said during a meeting in Malacañang, drawing applause from his officials.
If the United States wants to provide vaccines to the country, it should do so without making “so much noise,” he said.
He noted that the United States was struggling to produce vaccines for its people, with the US pharmaceutical company Pfizer “up to its neck producing them for everyone.” And yet, he said, it was promising to provide many countries with vaccines against the virus that causes COVID-19.
Can be signed before January
He made the remarks while again addressing controversies over the county’s vaccine procurement plan. Carlito Galvez Jr., who is in charge of the national vaccination program, said the agreements to purchase the Pfizer and Novovax vaccines could be signed in January.
Duterte told Gálvez that he shouldn’t worry too much about the cost of vaccines. He told the former chief of military personnel to buy whatever was available because “it is an emergency.”
The president also asked Dr. Eric Domingo, CEO of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), not to prolong the approval of vaccines that have already passed through government regulators in the United States and the United Kingdom.
Domingo said the FDA only had some requirements for vaccine manufacturers that had obtained approval from regulatory agencies in the United Kingdom and the United States.
The FDA’s concern is the stability of the vaccines in the Philippine climate and their effectiveness for Asians, Domingo said. The FDA also wanted to ensure that the vaccine registered in other countries was the same for use in the Philippines, he added.
Soldiers already vaccinated
Domingo said the FDA would be stricter when approving vaccines from China because they have yet to gain approval from their counterparts in other countries. Duterte revealed that many in the Philippines had already received the vaccine from Sinopharm, a Chinese pharmaceutical company.
“I have to be frank, I have to tell the truth. I will not lie. Many [soldiers] they have been vaccinated, ”he said, adding that it was“ for a select few, not for all soldiers, because it is not yet a policy ”.
Emergency use
In response, Domingo noted that authorities have not caught anyone with unauthorized vaccines in raids in Makati and Binondo.
The Sinopharm vaccine has been approved for emergency use in China and in several countries, including the United Arab Emirates, where it is undergoing clinical trials.
The president said that even members of the New People’s Army would be eligible to receive the government vaccine.
The vaccine would be available to all Filipinos, he said. INQ
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