Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte threatened to cancel an important military deal with the United States if Washington did not soon deliver millions of doses of Covid-19 vaccine to the country.

In the face of domestic pressure related to deadlock over negotiations to buy Covid-19 vaccine from the US, President Duterte is looking to make the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) with the US military a bargain card.

"If they can't deliver at least 20 million doses of vaccine, they'd best get out of here. No vaccines, don't stay," the Philippine President said on December 26 during a meeting broadcast on television with the

In November, Duterte agreed to a six-month extension of the 1998 VFA agreement, which has allowed the US to maintain a rotating military force in the Philippines.

The threat from President Duterte comes as his government is being criticized for not being able to sign a Covid-19 vaccine purchase agreement with pharmaceutical company Pfizer, while neighboring Southeast Asian countries like Singapore or Indonesia.

Earlier this month, Philippine Foreign Minister Teodoro Locsin Jr.

But President Duterte said Pfizer, the US pharmaceutical giant, had never made any firm commitments regarding the sale of the vaccine.

Yesterday, he showed his support for Minister Duque, at the same time expressed anger at the US side.

In July, when Filipinos reeled from one of the longest blockades in the world led by Covid-19, President Duterte called for the nation to calm down and expressed hope that things would "get back to normal".

The President of the Philippines has expressed support for vaccines from China and Russia, criticizing "Western countries" for "always knowing only profits".

To date, Manila has only guaranteed to buy 2.6 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine from the British pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca and the vaccine will be delivered in May, when the mass vaccination campaign in the Philippines is expected.

The Philippines has recorded nearly 470,000 Covid-19 infections with over 9,000 deaths, is one of the epidemics of Southeast Asia.