By Robina Asido

As he is about to complete his term on June 30, President Rodrigo Duterte is happy with his government's response against the COVID-19 pandemic.

During his Talk to The People program on Monday night, Duterte said his government contained COVID-19 in a "very much earlier span of time."

"Actually I couldn't believe that we are about to end our story, my governance in my term. It seems that the big problem about the COVID-19 was also ended. While other countries were grappling still, they were the ones who had the vaccines first," he said.

As of Tuesday, at least 69.5 million Filipinos are fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Last week, the Nikkei Asia COVID-19 Recovery Index placed the Philippines at 33rd place after being in last place in 2021.

The National Capital Region has been on Alert Level 1 since March and active cases have remained low.

"I am also lucky that I will about to end my term this month and the number of cases is already low. If I were to judge myself, the one single thing that my government did was to contain COVID-19 in a very much earlier span of time. And to think that the other now are experiencing surge simply because maybe the citizens of that country do not want to follow regulations," he added.

This was emphasized by Duterte as he recognized the contribution of NTF COVID-19 Chief Implementer and Vaccine Czar Carlito Galvez Jr. in his administration's effort against the Coronavirus.

"Secretary Galvez, I’d like to congratulate you for a job well done. Without going into the demarcation line of the toil that one pours into an undertaking, the one single factor that we can attribute to our good recovery was obedience of the people. We... initially had to bleed for it that obedience," he said.

"They were there all the time. I said, especially, Secretary Galvez and Secretary (Vince) Dizon. At least when we retire and we remember the years that we were still active in governance, you can remember when you get old you have to look back in time in the hindsight and you would feel proud of yourself," he added. DMS