The US has ordered a temporary halt to construction on a housing estate in the Philippines amid rising tensions between the two countries over the burial of communist dictator Ferdinand Marcos, the country’s government said on Friday.

The move comes as the United States prepares to unveil a new policy on the use of military force in the country amid a standoff over the Marcos’ burial.

President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration has repeatedly said that it would not tolerate the burial, despite protests from local governments and international rights groups.

“The administration has ordered that construction of homes for the families of Marcos will not proceed and will not take place,” the Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario said in a statement.

Marcos’ widow, Grace Poe, said she would not accept the construction of the sprawling, 3,000-square-metre estate and would protest the move on Sunday.

“It is my right as a sovereign citizen to protest.

I will not stand for it,” she said in an interview with the Philippine news agency Bernabéu.

“My government is not a political party.

It is my government,” she added.

The Philippines is the second country to impose a temporary moratorium on the construction or reconstruction of new housing projects under a US-backed “pivot” to Asia that Duterte has said he would launch as he seeks to revive the countrys economy and curb corruption.

The US also has imposed a moratorium on its military aid, but Duterte has pledged to keep Washington onside.

The Marcos burial marks the latest dispute between the Philippines and the US.

Duterte has repeatedly called the US a “rapist” and “dictator”, and has accused the US of meddling in his countrys affairs through its “hostile” policies towards the Philippines.