London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 02, 2025

Duterte seeks Chinese coronavirus vaccine, rules out US bases in Philippines

‘I made a plea to Xi Jinping. Can we be one of the first to have it … or can we buy it?’ says Duterte in State of the Nation Address. He rules out confronting Beijing in the South China Sea as ‘[China is] in possession of the property’

President Rodrigo Duterte told lawmakers on Monday he had asked Chinese President Xi Jinping to help the Philippines get priority access to a Covid-19 vaccine, as the country struggles with the coronavirus pandemic that has battered the economy.

In his annual State of the Nation Address, Duterte said: “Four days ago I made a plea to Xi Jinping. Can we be one of the first to have it … or can we buy it?”

Infections in the Philippines rose to 82,040 on Monday with 1,945 dead, while just over 26,000 people have recovered. It has the second-highest number of infections in Southeast Asia, after Indonesia.

While Duterte, who spoke for more than 90 minutes, asked banks and property companies to help small businesses, and sought their help to revitalise his 8 trillion peso (US$162.44 billion) infrastructure programme, he did not outline the government’s strategy to bring infections down or to increase contact tracing.

He said only that there were now 93 accredited testing laboratories and the government was aiming to conduct 1.4 million tests by this Friday. A Department of Health bulletin showed labs had conducted 1.14 million tests as of July 19.

He also thanked frontline health staff and said the lockdown – among the world’s strictest and longest several months ago – had prevented infections from ballooning to 3.5 million. While the lockdown measures have eased, some restrictions remain in Metro Manila.

He said: “I must admit that our actions have been far from perfect. I admit it. And there could be improvements here and there. But all of us in government, including myself, assure you that we will not stop until we get things right and better for you.”


‘CHINA HAS THE ARMS, WE DON’T’

Duterte also reiterated that he would not confront China over its South China Sea claims, saying diplomacy was the best approach because the alternative was to go to war and he could not afford to do that.

He said, “China is claiming [the West Philippine Sea], we are claiming it. China has the arms, we do not … So it’s simple as that. They are in possession of the property.”

“They are in possession. So what can we do? We have to go to war. And I cannot afford it. Maybe some other president can. But I cannot. I’m helpless there, I tell you, and I’m willing to admit it.”

While he did not give an update on the Visiting Forces Agreement with the United States – earlier this year he had ordered it to be cancelled but last month suspended his order – he ruled out allowing the Americans to once again set up bases in the Philippines because “if war breaks out there will be atomic arsenals” which would “ensure the extinction of the Filipino race”.

For most of the 20th century, the US maintained its two largest bases outside the US in the Philippines at Clark Air Base and Subic Naval Base. US forces pulled out of the country in 1992.

Maritime law expert Jay Batongbacal questioned Duterte’s assessment of the situation in the South China Sea. “He clearly does not understand what possession means and entails,” said Batongbacal, the director of the University of the Philippines Institute of Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea.

“The sea is not subject to anyone’s legal possession, nor to any rights beyond what is permitted in the [United Nations Convention on the] Law of the Sea. The mere fact that China has been unable to exclude everyone else from operating in or using the South China Sea, including the Philippines through the Philippine navy, coastguard, air force and also Filipino civilians, directly belies Duterte’s statement.”

At one point during his speech, delivered before a smaller-than-usual audience due to social distancing regulations, Duterte, 75, complained that bad lighting and his poor eyesight made it hard to see the teleprompter.

He rued that “a dream of prosperity for our country was snapped by a pandemic”.

To help the economy recover, he asked lessors to come to a “fair arrangement” with their lessees, banks to give lenders a three-month grace period to help them recover and the Central Bank to give “regulatory relief” to allow loan payment extensions for small and medium enterprises without penalties.

He also suggested that corporate income tax be cut from 30 per cent to 25 per cent, while providing targeted and time bound incentives to businesses.

Among other measures, he said there should be assistance provided to repatriated Filipino workers who had lost their jobs.

He came to life when speaking of his administration’s achievements in the war on drugs, which has resulted in thousands of extrajudicial killings, and called for a return to the death penalty via lethal injection for drug crimes.

Duterte also attacked oligarchs and what he called the “economic elite”, claiming he was a “casualty” of the Lopez family, the owners of the recently closed TV network ABS-CBN, whose franchise was not renewed by Congress. He indicated that the network franchise would not be renewed.

Duterte also warned telecommunications companies Globe Telecom and PLDT to improve their services.

University of the Philippines political science professor Jean Franco said Duterte did not seem to have a plan to get the country out of the pandemic but was just making a “series of proposals that seem to stand alone”.

Although Duterte spoke for more than 90 minutes, the recovery measures he presented were “still unclear,” said AB Capital Securities deputy head of research Lexter Azurin.

“The market is hoping for an assurance from the government that it is on top of all the problems now,” Azurin said. “This should further dampen sentiment in our already beaten up local market.”

Hours before Duterte spoke, left-leaning groups staged a protest inside the state-owned University of the Philippines denouncing what they said was his “unbridled fascism” and the passage of the new Anti-Terrorism Act, a law critics say has been made deliberately vague so it can be used to crackdown on any form of dissent.

Duterte’s speech drew three million views while an online protest concert by the Catholic Church, musicians and millennials drew half a million.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
BNP Paribas Abandons Ban on 'Controversial Weapons' Financing Amid Europe’s Defence Push
Typhoon Ragasa Leaves Trail of Destruction Across East Asia Before Making Landfall in China
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Big Banks Rebuild in Hong Kong as Deal Volume Surges
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
Lilly CEO Warns UK Is ‘Worst Country in Europe’ for Drug Prices, Pulls Back Investment
Nigel Farage Emerges as Central Force in British Politics with Reform UK Surge
Disney Reinstates ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ after Six-Day Suspension over Charlie Kirk Comments
U.S. Prosecutors Move to Break Up Google’s Advertising Monopoly
Nvidia Pledges Up to $100 Billion Investment in OpenAI to Power Massive AI Data Center Build-Out
U.S. Signals ‘Large and Forceful’ Support for Argentina Amid Market Turmoil
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
Vietnam Faces Up to $25 Billion Export Loss as U.S. Tariffs Bite
Europe Signals Stronger Support for Taiwan at Major Taipei Defence Show
Indonesia Court Upholds Military Law Amid Concerns Over Expanded Civilian Role
Larry Ellison, Michael Dell and Rupert Murdoch Join Trump-Backed Bid to Take Over TikTok
Trump and Musk Reunite Publicly for First Time Since Fallout at Kirk Memorial
Vietnam Closes 86 Million Untouched Bank Accounts Over Biometric ID Rules
×