Malacañang confirmed on Tuesday President Rodrigo Duterte is scheduled to have a talk with Russian President Vladimir Putin,
Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque, however, declined to spill additional details about the scheduled phone talk, explaining that the President’s schedule is “classified as secret.”
In a statement last Sunday, Senator Christopher Lawrence Go said Duterte was set to discuss with Putin the efforts to further bolster cooperation between the Philippines and Russia in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic, including the issue of vaccine supply.
Vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez earlier announced that around 20,000 of Russian-made Sputnik V vaccines will be used in the vaccination dry-run, to be administered in a separate manner per dose, as the first dose contains Adenovirus-26 particles while the second dose has Adenovirus-5.
About 500,000 vials of the Sputnik V vaccine are expected to arrive shortly in country. In December last year, Duterte invited Putin to visit the Philippines this year “as soon as circumstances allow.”