Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has threatened a martial law-like crackdown to stop people flouting a virus lockdown in the nation's capital.
Duterte spoke a day after authorities reported an upsurge of cars on Manila's roads, which had been nearly deserted since a sweeping lockdown was imposed a month ago on about half the country's 110 million people.
"I'm just asking for a little discipline. If not, if you do not believe me, then the military and police will take over," Duterte said in a televised speech late Thursday. "The military and police will enforce social distancing at curfew... It's like martial law. You choose."
Duterte has repeatedly threatened to impose nationwide military rule over the Philippines, where the mere words evoke the worst rights abuses of the Ferdinand Marcos dictatorship.
The closest Duterte has come is the imposition of martial law over Mindanao, the nation's southern third, in response to Islamic State-inspired militants' siege of the city of Marawi.
AFP
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