President Duterte said the European Union was continuing to give the Philippines aid despite a fallout earlier this year.
In May, the Philippines said grants of about 250 million euros would not be collected, despite the EU being a top source of investment for the country.
The Southeast Asian country claimed it was unwilling to accept the EU attempting to enforce human rights regulations in return for money.
Speaking on Wednesday in footage captured by Politiko, President Duterte said: “The European Union, they do not say that they are giving aid, they deny it. But they are.
“When Sonny Dominguez, my finance officer, says there’s a plan to give us, I said ‘for all of the European Union, say no to them.’
“We do not need that I said, we can survive as a nation.
“You do not tinker with a sovereign nation, with my sovereignty.
“Because when they give aid, they impose conditions and sometimes they have been critical.”
Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano earlier this year told reporters the government would have accepted the aid had the EU not imposed conditions related to the President’s war on drugs.
President Duterte’s signature campaign is claimed to have killed thousands of Filipinos, and alarmed much of the international community.
But now the EU will continue to provide the aid it previously pledged despite President Duterte’s anti-EU rhetoric.