STRICTER measures will be implemented if people continue to disregard health protocols and quarantine restrictions imposed for their own good amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte said this in a pre-recorded briefing aired on Monday, the Inquirer.net reported.
Duterte said it was disheartening to see people not following the rules set by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases.
This particularly evident in Bacolod in the Visayas and Cagayan de Oro Mindanao, he said and pointed out some people in these places act as though there was no pandemic, even just roaming around.
"We might calibrate our response to the intransigence that you will show. It's up to you. Then we can go into, there are many things. I could, I just don't want to say it, but we have the power to control it actually if we want to make it hard for people," Duterte said.
From March up to mid-May, Metro Manila and its four neighbouring provinces of Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, and Rizal were placed under enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) and modified ECQ due to a surge that peaked to over 200,000 active Covid-19 cases at one point.
It was only downgraded to a general community quarantine (GCQ) after Metro Manila recorded a gradual decrease in cases.
However, even with that decrease, the country's new infections remained at the 6,000 to 7,000 mark, with Health Secretary Francisco Duque attributing the spike to the higher cases recorded in the Visayas and Mindanao.