MANILA — Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said on Tuesday he would favor a government-to-government deal for the purchase of coronavirus vaccines to prevent the risk of corruption.
“Let me tell everybody that we will not beg, we will pay,” Duterte said in a weekly televised address. “To the Chinese government, you need not look for partners, we can make it government-to-government.”
The Philippines has the second-highest number of COVID-19 infections and deaths in Southeast Asia behind Indonesia. —Reporting by Neil Jerome Morales Editing by Ed Davies
