Duterte thanks China for giving 1M doses of Sinopharm vaccine

President Rodrigo Duterte thanked China for donating one million doses of COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by state-owned pharmaceutical firm Sinopharm.

“Walang supply [ng bakuna] hanggang ngayon. Mabuti na lang binigyan tayo ng, is it 1 million? I’d like to thank China binigyan na naman tayo ng one million doses. Kita mo?” Duterte said in a taped address aired Saturday morning.

(There is no supply of vaccines up to now. Good thing we were given, is it 1 million [doses]? I'd like to thank China for giving us one million doses [of Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine.])

He then snapped at administration critics who have been questioning his foreign policy of maintaining good relations with China.

Referring to former Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario and former Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, who have been vocal against ties with Beijing, Duterte said the Philippines would not have received any vaccine donations from China if he listened to his critics.

“Ngayon itong mga gagong ito, si Albert, Trillanes. Kung sinabing tama sila tapos sumunod ako sa kanila, ang unang bakuna, wala tayo. Sino nagbigay? China,” Duterte said.

[If I had listened to Del Rosario and Trillanes, who would give us vaccines? But China did.]

Duterte then recalled his phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping to request for vaccines against COVID-19.

Last Thursday, Ambassador Huang Xilian announced that around one million doses of Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccines donated by the Chinese government will arrive this week in the Philippines.

On Friday afternoon, a total of 739,200 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 2 at 5:55 p.m.

On Saturday morning, 260,800 Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine doses arrived at NAIA, completing the one million doses donation of China. —LBG/KG, GMA News