President Rodrigo Duterte has urged residential lessors to suspend in the meantime rental payments as people have been saving for their food amid the coronavirus disease crisis.

“I got reports that the people who have been renting their houses are being pressured to pay,” Duterte said in a taped televised meeting with the members of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Diseases on late Wednesday night.

“All of us lost income. So, I’d like to ask the owners that if it’s possible, the land, to suspend (rent) for the house, don’t collect yet,” he said, noting that the people do not have money right now.

He said if there is money on hand, “they are saving it for the last day, the rainy days to come.”

Duterte said he would not allow families to be evicted from homes if they fail to pay yet their rentals.

Duterte also dissuaded the lessors from filing eviction cases.

“Do not pressure anybody or a poor person just because you have this right. It is not the time for you to pressure other people because of your right,” he said.

Duterte said he is doing this “because it is my duty to preserve the nation. And the only way I can do it is really to impose order.”

The entire Luzon, including Metro Manila, has been under lockdown until April 30 to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Under the lockdown, the movement of the people have been restricted and only essential businesses have been allowed to operate.

Thousands of people have lost their jobs.

The quarantine is implemented also in other parts of the country. Celerina Monte/DMS