President Rodrigo Duterte has taken the responsibility for the COVID-19 vaccine shortage in the Philippines earlier this year.
In his weekly taped address aired on Tuesday morning, Duterte reasoned that there has no vaccine manufacturing in the country, making it hard to secure COVID-19 jabs for Filipinos.
"Kung mayroon man nagkasala diyan, aminin ko na lang, kasi wala na rin naman ako magawa. Gusto ko bumili, wala naman ako mabilihan," he said.
[If someone is at fault there, I will admit it, because I couldn’t do anything. Even though I want to buy vaccines, I couldn’t buy them.]
He also emphasized how rich countries hogged the bulk supply of vaccines.
"Kung makipag-contest ako doon sa mga mayayaman sa bilihan ng bakuna, talagang huli ako," he said.
[If I will compete with rich countries who are procuring vaccines, I would really fall behind.]
However, Duterte said that vaccinations in the country have improved with the supply of vaccines steadily coming to the Philippines, noting that a "better" Christmas is in store for the Filipinos.
So far, the country has nearly 23.2 million fully vaccinated individuals. The government is targetting to vaccinate at least 77 million Filipinos in order to achieve herd immunity.
