By Rizal Obanil
Philippine National Police (Chief) Police General Archie Gamboa is not too keen on creating a special lane for those who are exempted from the enhanced community quarantine checkpoints.
Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Gen. Archie Gamboa
In an interview over DZMM on Wednesday, Ted Failon asked Gamboa what his stand was on special lanes.
“Actually that was taken up doon sa (at the) inter-agency task force at ang (and the) stand kasi ng (of) Philippine National Police is that all of those who pass through the checkpoint , lahat ng dadaan ( all those who will pass through) are all part of the exemptions.
“So ngayon, kung gagawin nating magkaroon ng lane kunwari sa medical, sasabihin ng food, hindi sa amin special lane din. Kung ganyan, sabi ko lahat na special lane. (So now, if we were to have a special lane for medical, for example, those delivering food would say, you should have a special lane for us as well. If that happens, I said, then we should you allot a special lane for everyone),” Gamboa explained further.
Gamboa said the said suggestion has already been brought up during a meeting of the Inter-agency Task Force, but he said that they still maintained their position on the matter.
“Ang assertion kasi ng PNP, we will do our best na pabilisin yung mga checkpoint. Kagaya ng cargo. Eto this would pertain naman to vehicles. Hindi na sya unhampered. But we can still inspect. (The PNP’s assertion is we will do our best to hasten the process in checkpoints. Like for cargo. This would pertain to vehicles. They would be unhampered. But we can still inspect the contents),” he said.
Gamboa said that so far, at the inter-agency task force meeting, they concentrated on vehicles first and have actually yet to formulate policies for pedestrians.
He promises he will bring this up this matter in the next meeting.
Gamboa said they (PNP) are working on formulating policies to help ease the burden of those who go through checkpoints, especially for those who are exempted.