Duterte proposes nationwide liquor ban: spokesman

Joel Guinto, ABS-CBN News

Posted at 10 May 2016 11:31 AM

Presidential candidate Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte speaks during a press conference after casting his vote in Davao City on Monday. Jonathan Cellona, ABS-CBN News

DAVAO CITY -- Presumptive President Rodrigo Duterte is considering a nationwide liquor ban as part of efforts to curb criminality, his spokesman said Tuesday.

Duterte planned to replicate the city ordinance here that prohibits the sale of alcoholic beverages from 1 a.m., in the entire country, spokesman Peter Lavina said.

"This can be adopted nationwide via consultation," Lavina told reporters.

"The reason he has this liquor ban (in Davao) is because we have to work the next day, all the (restaurant) staff have to work, as well as the customers," he said.

"This has nothing to do with denying us of our freedoms," he said, adding people were not prohibited from drinking in their homes.

High-end Davao hotels are exempt from the liquor ban, he said.

The ban was imposed in Davao after the mayor saw a correlation between drunkenness and crime as well as road accidents, he said.

READ: Duterte vows end to streetside drinking sessions