‘Tight’ border control assured amid possible easing of GCQ

MANILA – Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Gen. Guillermo Eleazar on Sunday ordered police personnel to keep tight border control to prevent further Covid-19 transmission.

This, after the OCTA Research Group underscored the importance of maintaining border controls in provinces or regions across the country amid possible easing of quarantine restrictions in the National Capital Region (NCR) Plus.

“We guarantee that the PNP will maintain heightened measures on border control points so that the virus will no longer spread from one place to another,” he said in a statement.

Malacañang on June 10 said the NCR Plus, composed of Metro Manila, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna and Rizal, would likely be placed under “ordinary” general community quarantine (GCQ) after June 15.

“Sa ngayon po ay patuloy ang mahigpit na pagbabantay ng ating kapulisan sa mga quarantine control points, lalo na’t may nakitang pagtaas sa bilang ng mga kaso ng Covid-19 sa ibang rehiyon bukod sa NCR. Iniiwasan natin na kumalat na muli ang virus maging sa mga lugar na maituturing na low-risk areas sa ngayon (At present, our police continue to closely monitor the quarantine control points, especially since there has been an increase in the number of Covid-19 cases in regions other than NCR. We are preventing the virus from spreading again even in areas that can be considered low-risk areas today),” he added.

Eleazar said the PNP will abide by the guidelines issued by the national government through the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) if there would be changes on border controls.

“Kami ay tagapagpatupad lamang ng mga alituntunin na ibinababa ng IATF kaya’t kung may mga pagbabago man po, sakaling matuloy ang pagluluwag sa ibang lugar, amin po itong ipatutupad (We are only enforcing the rules laid down by the IATF so if there are any changes, in case the relaxation continues elsewhere, we will enforce it.),” he said.

The PNP has been tasked to maintain quarantine control points to prevent unnecessary or non-essential travel, especially from areas under strict quarantine to the places with less strict quarantine.

Police personnel manning these checkpoints have been instructed to allow the unhampered passage of vehicles carrying essential goods or those on important or essential travel.

Random inspections of vehicles are also conducted at the quarantine control points set up by the PNP in NCR Plus.