Assistance received by the country from the external parties (i.e outside the country) (who?

Form
of assistance? When – stage of crisis?)

Singapore
After confirming the first death due to COVID-19 on the 1st of February, the confirmed cases in
the Philippines had rapidly increased. On 24 March, 552 cases had been confirmed with 90 are new cases,
the government of Philippines had received a donation from Singapore. Foreign Affairs Secretary
Teodoro Locsin Jr. received a total of 3,000 test kits for Covid-19 and a thermal cycler from the
Singaporean government (Rocamora, 2020). The donation also included the polymerase chain reaction
(PCR) machine and was directly handed by the Singaporean Ambassador to Manila Gerard Ho Wei
Hong. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affair (2020), Temasek Foundation International,
Singaporean Non-profit organization also donated 40,000 Covid-19 diagnostic tests and two ventilators.
The ventilator can be used in crucial cases for severe Covid-19 patients in the Philippines.
China
China sent 12 medical experts to be aids for the Philippines for fighting Covid-19,the experts are
from various departments including respiratory, intensive care, nursing and microbiological testing. This
team also brought along 30 ventilators, 5,000 protective suits, 300,000 medical masks, 30,000 N95
respirators, 12 tonnes of anti-epidemic materials and 5,000 face shields of donation from the Chinese
government. The Chinese embassy also donated 20,000 packs of “friendship rice” to families in North
Luzon for Covid-19 pandemic relief. According to the Consulate of the People’s Republic of China in
Laoag (2020), the donation of solidarity during this difficult time is a significant source for the
Philippines families, and also in conjunction with the 45th Anniversary of Diplomatic Relations between
two countries. China donated 150 sets of high flow humidifiers to help Covid-19 patients in the
Philippines. This humidifier is a breathing aid device that has soaring demand for patient Covid-19
patients. Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea received the donation from the China Embassy in
Melacanang Palace.
China is the first country to donate vaccines to the Philippines and by 28 February 2021, China
military carried 600,000 doses of Sinovac Covid-19 vaccine to Manilla Colonel Jesus Villamor Airbase.
Philippine’s President Rodrigo Roa Duterte expressed gratitude to China for their donation as their way to
show solidarity, friendship and partnership with the Philippines. In early March, China donated an
additional 400,000 doses of Sinovac after the first batch arrived at the end of February. China continues to
donate vaccines to the Philippines and on 29 July, they will receive 1.5 million doses of CoronaVac and
that makes the government already contribute 18.5 million vaccines including China’s donation to the
nation (Atienza, 2021). Chinese Ambassador, Huang Xilian said the Chinese donation of 1 million
Sinopharm vaccines will arrive starting Friday (20 August 2021). Sinopharm can be used as booster doses
and has been accepted by 102 countries all over the world.

United States of America (USA)

America is the country that donated the most to the Philippines, they donated in all levels of the
Philippine's Covid-19 outbreak. On April 10 2020, the USA ambassador handed over 1,300 news cots to
the Office of Civil Defense to aid Covid-19 patients. They also provide Php 204 million or around USD 4
million in health assistance. According to Tomacruz (2020), the US government donated an additional
Php 298 million around USD 5.9 million on 7 May to assist the government during the outbreak. In
coordination with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and Office of Civil Defenses
provided clinical training and technical assistance to support the health facilities. In addition to donating
100 new ventilators for the severe Covid-19 patient and all this help bring a total of Php 1 billion or USD
22.6 million of help from America to the Philippines.
On 11 May 2021, U.S military members in Mindanao and Luzon delivered personal protection
equipment (PPE) worth Php 5.7 million (USD 118,700) to support the locals. The supplies consist of
disposable gloves, googles, face shield, disinfectant spray that contribute to local hospitals, medical
clinics and rural health units.U.S. military service members in Luzon delivered intensive care unit (ICU)
beds, valued at over Php83,000 (USD 1,660), to Cagayan Valley Medical Center in Tuguegarao City,
Cagayan. Another biggest donation related to ICU beds is by U.S Indo-Pacific Command that has an
alliance with Philippines Coast Guard with a total value of Php 758,750 (USD 15,175) of ICU beds,
essential protection equipment and vaccine cold storage to Puerto Princesa, Palawan. On 26 October,
Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) received a total of Php 2.075 million (USD 40,914) consisting of
ICU beds and Covid-19 vaccine cold storage unit from the US military. According to David Gamble,
Acting Deputy Chief of Mission this donation is another continuous act for the partnership with AFP that
had been going strong for 70 years. Through USAID, the US had handed 3,000 RT-PCR extraction kits
to the Philippine Genome Center. These extraction kits will help strengthen COVID-19 testing and
genomic surveillance in the Philippines.
Covid-19 Vaccine Global Access or COVAX is directed by GAVI with worldwide initiative to
equitable access of Covid-19 vaccine. This organization is also co-led by CEPI,WHO and UNICEF.
According to (de Bengy Puyvallée & Storeng, 2022), the US was by far the single largest donor of Covid-
19 vaccines (41%), followed by China (12%) and Germany (11%). All the donations of vaccines to the
Philippines from the US had been delivered through COVAX. The average seven-days positive cases in
the Philippines on 5 March 2021 is still under control and only 7.0% of the tested is positive out of 33,638
tested individuals. The Philippines is among the first countries in SEA to have received COVID-19
vaccines through the COVAX facility; they received 487,200 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine. The first
ever Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine of 193,050 had arrived in the Philippines on May 10 in addition
to the 2,030,400 doses of AstraZeneca that had been contributed on May 8. The US government also
delivered Johnson & Johnson consisting of 3,240,850 doses of boost vaccine to the Philippines via
COVAX on the 16 and 17 July 2021. COVA and US embassy incharge, Heather Variana and other
representative at Ninoy Aquino International Airport to welcome the shipment of 1,776,060 doses of
Pfizer vaccine on 20 December and another 1,623,960 doses of the same vaccine on next days this make
the total of 3,400,020 of Pfizer vaccine.
In an effort to end the crisis of Covid-19, America successfully delivered 1.2 billion Covid-19
vaccines on 10 February to help provide more vaccines during the Philippine third national vaccine drive.
According to US embassy Manila (202), As the largest donor to COVAX, the U.S. has facilitated the
delivery of more than 69 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to the Philippines. On March 7 2022, one of
the largest shipments of Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 a total of 3,999,060 doses to the Philippines via US
partnership with COVAX. Till the date (7 March) America had provided more than 33.3 million vaccine
doses to the Philippines.
Japan
Japan sent experts to help at the first stage of Covid-19 in the Philippines. On April 1 2020,
Nagasaki University medical staff arrived for their technical assistance as well as PCR reagents and
equipment to San Lazaro Hospital in Manila. On June 8, Japan Ambassador Koji Haneda handed over a
donation of Php 944 million or about 2 billion yen to help The Department of Health (DOH) to buy ant
medical equipment for necessity to help the hospital to handle all their Covid-19 patients. Since the
pandemic, the Japanese Government has pledged over JPY100 billion assistance as loan and support to
the vaccination cold chain facilities of the Philippines (Department of Foreign Affair, 2021).
Taiwan and Brunei Darussalam
Taiwanese government gave 15,000 face masks for the Filipino health worker and another
300,000 medical masks via Taipei Economic & Culture Office (TECO). On June 17 2020, Taiwan
donated 500,000 pieces of surgical masks, 50,000 pieces of N95 marks, 20,000 isolation gowns and 5,000
personal protective gowns through Taipei Economic and Culture Office (TECO) to the Republic of
Philippines. According to the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in the Philippines (2021), the Ministry
of Foreign (MOFA) of the Republic of China (Taiwan) donated 200 oxygen concentrators worth Php 6.5
million.
Brunei Darussalam donated 20 test kits that are sufficient for 1,000 tests of Covid-19 to the
Filipino Department of Health (DOH). On 24 October, the Sultanate donated 2,000 AstraZeneca vaccines
to the Republic of the Philippines.
The Republic of South Korea
The Republic of South Korea helped the Philippines by delivering 700 units of Q-sen 2019-
nCoV detection kits. These kits can yield for 35,000 tests and are worth Php 25.38 million at 24 April
2020. Export-Import Bank of Korea-EDCF program loans are launched to help Filipinos hospitals
maintain their medical supplies and equipment with a value of $100 million to the Republic of
Philippines. South Korea Donated 670,000 face masks for Korean war veterans under the Philippines
Expeditionary Forces to Korea (PEFTOK), another 600,000 face masks in July and an additional 20,000
face masks and hand sanitizer in November. The Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA)
donated 200 tons of rice and emergency relief kits. Another country that has a partnership with COVAX
is South Korea and they delivered a vaccine to the Philippines. SK Bioscience is a Korean vaccine
company that produces the Korean own AstraZeneca/Oxford Covid-29 vaccine. They donate 487,200
doses to the Philippines via COVAX.
France and United Emirates Arab
The French embassy in Manila reported that France handed over 2 million Euro to support
frontliner in the Republic of Philippines. Another COVAX partner, French , decided to donate 3.5 million
vaccines. On 18 December 2021, 811,890 doses of Pfizer vaccine arrived at Ninoy Aquino International
Airport.
The UAE donated four metric ton of PPE including face mask, glove and shoe cover and another
3 metric ton of medical supplies of sanitizer and wipes. Additionally , United Emirates Arab also donated
100,000 doses of Sinophram”s vaccine on August 11. This makes the Philippines the 2nd in vaccination
administration among 10 ASEAN countries.
Canada and Australia
On June 10 2020, Canada announced that their government will provide CAD$1.1 million to the
Philippines to assist with the pandemic. They donated 120,000 N95 masks and addition of CAD$
400,000 to Sexual Health and Empowerment Philippines (SHE) project with Oxfm during Covid-19.
Australia donated PPE value of Php 35 million to Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to help
the country Covid-19 pandemic. The donation also includes a 30-bed expansion of Victoria Luna Medical
center. Australia also donated a total of 200 oxygen concentrates to 27 hospitals and health centers all
over the Philippines.Till 21 October 2021, Australia had helped the Philippine government by training
640 healthcare workers and 300 local communities or more to convey the importance of Covid-19
vaccine to all Filipinos. With that, Australia donated 1,432,080 doses of Pfizer Covid-19 vaccin to the
Philippines through United Nation and Child Fund (UNICEF).
 References

1. (2020, June 9). 20,000 Packs of 'Friendship Rice' Distributed in North Luzon. Retrieved June 5,

2022, from http://laoag.china-consulate.gov.cn/eng/lgxx/202006/t20200609_5053901.htm

2. Atienza, K. A. T. (2021, July 29). 1.5M more vaccines from China arrive; more shots coming.

BusinessWorld Online. Retrieved June 5, 2022, from

https://www.bworldonline.com/the-nation/2021/07/29/385877/1-5m-more-vaccines-from-china-

arrive-more-shots-coming/

3. de Bengy Puyvallée, A., & Storeng, K. T. (2022, March 05). COVAX, vaccine donations and the

politics of global vaccine inequity. Globalization and health, 18(1), 1-14.

https://doi.org/10.1186/s12992-022-00801-z

4. Philippines and Japan Sign Agreement on the Donation of a Million Doses of Japanese Vaccines.

(2021, June 30). DFA. Retrieved June 5, 2022, from https://dfa.gov.ph/dfa-news/dfa-

releasesupdate/29179-philippines-and-japan-sign-agreement-on-the-donation-of-a-million-doses-

of-japanese-vaccines

5. Rocamora, A. L. (2020, March 24). PH receives PCR machine, Covid-19 test kits from

Singapore. Philippine News Agency. Retrieved June 5, 2022, from

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1097615

6. Singapore donates 40,000 COVID-19 test kits and two ventilators (28 March 2020). (2020,

March 28). Ministry of Foreign Affairs Singapore. Retrieved June 5, 2022, from

https://www.mfa.gov.sg/Overseas-Mission/Manila/Mission-Updates/2020/03/SG-donates-40000-

COVID-19-test-kits-and-two-ventilators_20200328

7. Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in the Philippines. (n.d.). PRESS RELEASE - The Republic

of China (Taiwan) donates 200 oxygen concentrators to help the Philippines amid COVID-19

pandemic. Retrieved June 5, 2022, from https://www.roc-taiwan.org/ph_en/post/6556.html

8. Tomacruz, S. (2020, April 16). LIST: Countries giving aid to the Philippines during the

coronavirus pandemic. Rappler. Retrieved June 5, 2022, from

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