Philippines will keep capital region in coronavirus lockdown until May 15, inflicting more pain on economy
- Areas covered by the extended lockdown on Luzon island account for about 60 per cent of the output of the US$330 billion economy
- ‘I am warning everybody and putting notice to the armed forces and the police, I might declare martial law,’ President Duterte said
The stay-at-home order in Luzon island from mid-March through April 30 was extended for another two weeks in central and southern Luzon provinces, and widened to cover Cebu, Davao and Iloilo, presidential spokesman Harry Roque said in a briefing aired on Friday. Curbs in some parts of Luzon were eased.
The Philippines joins Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia in extending restrictions to contain a pandemic that forces businesses to shut, sidelining millions of workers. Philippine regions under a looser quarantine can resume public construction and partially reopen malls and the transport system from May 1, Roque said.
Areas covered by the extended lockdown in Luzon alone account for about 60 per cent of the output of the US$330 billion economy that was among the fastest-growing in Asia. The fiscal discipline that President Rodrigo Duterte tried to preserve could be challenged by the massive spending that is needed to support the poor, a weak healthcare system and a deteriorating economy.
The government’s leeway to spend for the virus is running out as it has used up nearly 90 per cent of the almost 400 billion pesos (US$7.9 billion) that Congress allowed to be diverted for the pandemic, prompting Duterte to say that “the money is dwindling”.
“We have cash but we have no authority to spend that much,” Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez said on Friday.