MANILA, April 15 (Reuters) - Philippines President Rodrigo
Duterte said on Thursday the government can take over hotels and
turn them into isolation facilities as surging COVID-19
infections put a strain on the overstretched healthcare sector.
The Philippines is battling one of the worst outbreaks in
Asia, with hospitals in the capital region facing long queues of
patients and critical care units nearing maximum capacity.
"I can order the authorities to take over the operations of
hotels if there no longer are beds. That is easy," Duterte said
in a late night national address.
While a government takeover is not a "remedy desired in a
democratic state", Duterte said he could order the police and
military to seize the properties "when we are pushed to the
wall".
He said the properties would be decontaminated before they
were handed back. "I need your hotel. I will borrow it and after
that I will clean it up," Duterte said.
With 904,285 infections and 15,594 deaths, the Philippines
has the second-highest numbers of COVID-19 cases and casualties
in Southeast Asia, after Indonesia.
The capital region, an urban sprawl of 16 cities and at
least 13 million people, is the country's coronavirus hotspot.
Many hospitals there are turning away patients after reaching
maximum capacity in critical care units and COVID-19 wards.
"Of course the takeover of hotels in the national interest
or during emergency is the prerogative of the President," Arthur
Lopez, president of the Philippine Hotel Owners Association
(PHOA), told Reuters.
Around 300 hotels under PHOA are already fully booked as
quarantine facilities for Filipinos returning from abroad, Lopez
said.
While the firebrand leader has not expressed any complaints
about the hotel industry, he has a track record of tirades
against businesses that draw his ire.
He has threatened to seize control of the capital's water
distribution services over what he described as "onerous and
disadvantageous" concessions, and government expropriation of
telecoms firms for what he called "lousy" services.
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