MANILA, Philippines—In a recent televised briefing on COVID-19, President Rodrigo Duterte directed two key officials involved in pandemic response to report what the President said was the good news about the Philippines’ vaccination campaign.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque and vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. quickly sifted through papers and declared that the Philippines was second in Southeast Asia in rate of vaccination.
Last week, Malacanang also released a graph showing that the Philippines was second among Asean member-countries in the number of coronavirus vaccines administered.
It wasn’t clear where Malacanang got its data, but numbers c…
Keep on reading: In play of numbers, PH near bottom of vaccination rate