THE Philippine National Police (PNP) has instructed all its commanders to apprehend all private vehicles driven by or carrying unauthorized persons outside residence during the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ).
Lieutenant General Guillermo Eleazar, Joint Task Force COVID Shield commander and PNP deputy chief for operations, said this is part of the move to intensify enforcement of quarantine measures against the further spread of the novel coronavirus, or Sars-CoV-2.
“The expansion of the operations against these private vehicles which may have Unauthorized Persons Outside Residence inside is part of our Chief PNP’s order to further intensify measures against these hardheaded people,” Eleazar said.
Eleazar said policemen will issue citation tickets and confiscate the licenses of the drivers if their trip is found to be non-essential.
He said the PNP has coordinated with the Land Transportation Office for the imposition of penalties.
“All the violators should be penalized,” Eleazar said.
Earlier, the PNP Highway Patrol Group apprehended over 100 drivers over non-essential travel in a surprise operation along Edsa.
Eleazar said the HPG will conduct more surprise inspections. The HPG has also been tasked to operate in areas where home quarantine and social distancing rules are being violated.
Violators will be charged either through the electronic inquest (e-inquest) of the Department of Justice or through regular filing.
As of Monday morning, April 20, the PNP has arrested a total of 133, 499 ECQ violators across the country.
Of the total, 30,877 were arrested while the others were either warned or fined.
Of the arrested violators, 2,726 remain behind bars.
“We will be using our Mobile Command Center (MCC) in monitoring and intelligence-gathering of areas where ECQ rules, especially on home quarantine and social distancing are not observed,” he said.
The MCC is a self-contained and integrated command and control vehicle equipped with advanced technologies on audio and video communication that includes drones.
The entire Luzon is under ECQ. Localized quarantine restrictions are also in effect over several local government units across the country.
Under an ECQ, public transport systems are suspended and the people are required to stay at home, except the frontliners and essential personnel.
PNP Chief Archie Gamboa has also ordered a crackdown on illegal activities such as illegal cockfight, card games, mah-jong, and drinking sessions in public places. (SunStar Philippines)