President Rodrigo Duterte urged on Tuesday his counterparts in Southeast Asia to ensure smooth flow of goods within the region as he raised the need for sufficient supply of rice for the Filipinos in this time of lockdown.

Duterte made the call during the Special ASEAN Summit on Coronavirus Disease 2019 via a video conference with his fellow leaders.

"We are forced to impose drastic measures to address this pandemic. We asked our people to distance from each other and stay home. We reduced socio-economic activities to the barest minimum. And we closed our borders, creating barriers for mobility and trade," he said.

While these immediate responses are necessary, these could, however, drag the societies and the larger international community further apart, he said.

He said the effective, strategic response requires to come together and cooperate even more.

Duterte cited four main areas where the ASEAN countries could act collectively and support each other. One of them is maintaining trade.

"ASEAN must remain open for trade. Crisis or no crisis, as no country can stand alone. Let us, therefore ensure the supply chain connectivity and the smooth flow of goods within our region," he said.

He admitted that he was concerned with food security in this time of lockdowns.

"Our most urgent priority is ensuring sufficient supply of rice for our people," he said.

The Philippines is an importer of rice, particularly from Vietnam and Thailand.

"Food security is key in maintaining socio-economic and political stability, especially at a time of great difficulty for our people. We can ignore this only at our own risk," he said.

Duterte also called on his fellow ASEAN leaders on the need to boost production and facilitate intra-ASEAN trade of vital medicines and medical equipment and supply.

He also underscored the need to support vaccine and research and development initiatives to fight COVID-19.

He expressed readiness for the Philippines to "join solidarity with clinical trials" for virus treatment.

Expressing belief that COVID-19 would not be the last pandemic the world would face, he said ASEAN should be ready for future outbreaks.

He proposed for the establishment of an "early warning system" for pandemics in the region.

Duterte also thanked ASEAN, particularly Brunei Darussalam and Singapore for their assistance to the Philippines. Celerina Monte/DMS