The Chinese military aircraft carrying China’s donation of 600,000 doses of Sinovac’s Covid-19 vaccine arrives in the Philippines Sunday, Feb. 28, 2021. Photo courtesy of PCOO
MANILA, Philippines — China’s donation of Sinovac Covid-19 vaccines arrived in the country with no “strings attached,” President Rodrigo Duterte assured on Sunday.
He said the Chinese government did not ask for anything in return for its donation of 600,000 doses of the Sinovac Covid-19 vaccines.
“China never asked for anything. China has been giving us everything but never asked anything from us actually,” he said in a press conference after the turnover ceremony of the Sinovac vaccines at Villamor Air Base in Pasay City.
He, however, assured China that he will not allow the United States (U.S.) to store and maintain nuclear weapons in the Philippines.
“That’s the guarantee that I ano — na hindi ako papayag. Not because it will antagonize China but it is in the Philippine Constitution, which prohibits the presence of nuclear armaments in the country,” the President said.
Duterte accused the U.S. of asking for a military base in the Philippines, which he said, will put the Philippines in the line of fire.
“Kung magka-giyera and it will surely start maybe in the theater of war would be the Spratly and China Sea. Katabi lang tayo. Pangasinan, it’s just — nakaharap. Maraming probinsiya nandiyan. Alam mo kung may armaments sila dito ang unang tatamaan ‘yon. Saan? Sa Pilipinas,” he said.