The Honorable Undersecretary Brigido D. Dulay of DFA,

The Honorable Undersecretary Lloyd Christopher Lao of DBM,

The Honorable Assistant Secretary Meynardo LB Montealegre of DFA,

The Honorable Assistant Secretary Toby Purisima of OCD,

Dear Friends, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good afternoon!

The Philippines is now at a critical moment in fighting against the COVID-19 epidemic. In the spirit of helping each other and overcoming the difficulties together, the Chinese government has provided bulks of emergency medical supplies to help the Philippines' anti-epidemic efforts. The Chinese Embassy in the Philippines has also assisted the Philippine Government in purchasing the well-needed medical supplies in China and coordinated a chartered airplane to deliver them to Manila. Today, we are glad to see some of the medical supplies have been airlifted to Manila by this special flight. This "Goodwill Flight" demonstrates the new era partnership of mutual support between China and the Philippines during the time of trying. The spirit of this partnership is also an embodiment of the vision of building a community with a shared future for mankind advocated by the Chinese President Xi Jinping.

In the past several days, the China Medical Expert Team to the Philippines have worked around the clock. They have met with the officials of Department of Health of the Philippines and the staff of the Incident Command System. They have visited more than ten front-line medical agencies, such as Research Institute for Tropical Medicine, Lung Center of the Philippines and Chinese General Hospital and Medical Center, and met extensively with public health officials and professionals. They have also shared experience and practice on COVID-19 prevention and control, diagnosis and treatment, as well as personal protection with Filipino counterparts and people from all walks of life online.

As a Philippine saying goes, "A broom is sturdy because its strands are tightly bound"(Matibay ang walis, palibhasa'y magkabigki). Facing the challenge of COVID-19 outbreak, China and the Philippines have been supporting and helping each other. We will continue to provide our support and assistance to the best of our ability to the Philippines. It is our firm belief that the dawn of victory will come at the earliest.