The Philippine government would not follow the United States in temporarily suspending financial assistance to the World Health Organization over its handling of the coronavirus disease pandemic.

In a virtual press briefing on Thursday, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said the Duterte administration will continue to support WHO.

"As far as the Philippines is concerned, we stand committed to the WHO and we will give our contribution when the need arises," he said.

US President Donald Trump has said that US is freezing payment to the WHO for 60 to 90 days pending review of the UN body's warning about COVID-19 and China where the virus was first reported.

He accused WHO of severely mismanaging and covering up the threat.

To date, the US has the highest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases with over 600,000, according to worldometers.info.

Roque expressed hope that all the countries in the world would continue to cooperate with WHO.

"It's also important to provide fund to WHO," he said.

The Philippines has been an active member state of WHO, and is the home of the WHO Regional Office for the Western Pacific. Celerina Monte/DMS