President Duterte will join fellow Asia Pacific leaders in a virtual summit on Friday to tackle the region's pandemic response as well as measures to boost economic recovery.
"President Rodrigo Roa Duterte will participate in the 2021 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Informal Leaders' Retreat on 16 July 2021, from 1900H to 2100H (Manila time), via video conference," the Palace said in a statement Thursday night.
"The President will join his APEC counterparts in a high-level discussion on mitigating the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and opportunities for collaboration to accelerate economic recovery," it said.
The online APEC leaders' retreat, scheduled on Friday, will be hosted by New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. Among the leaders expected to attend the online meeting are US President Joe Biden, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimi Putin, and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga.
The Palace said International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva and World Health Organization (WHO) Executive Director Michael Ryan are expected to brief the APEC leaders on "the global economic and health responses to contain the pandemic."
APEC consists of 21 economies, including Australia, United States, Japan, China, Russia, Singapore, and the Philippines. Other member-economies are Brunei, Canada, Chile, Hong Kong, Indonesia, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Chinese Taipei, Thailand, and Vietnam.
President Duterte, in his previous speeches before the international community, called for the equitable distribution of the coronavirus vaccines. Duterte expressed concern that it would be "gross injustice" if low-income nations would be left behind in securing vaccines against the disease.
He previously lamented that the rich countries have cornered the bulk of the world's supply of vaccines, leaving poor nations to scramble for the remaining stocks.
As of July 15, the Philippines has recorded more than 1.4 million cases of coronavirus, including 26,314 deaths. The government has kept the community quarantine restrictions across the country at varying levels to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
With more than 22 million doses of vaccines, the government has so far administered 14 million jabs, including fully vaccinating 4 million Filipinos. The government originally aimed to inoculate up to 70 million Filipinos to attain herd immunity before the end of the year. The world's thin vaccine supply however forced the government to initially limit the vaccination target to Metro Manila and other high-risk areas.