With more people allowed to go back to work under less restrictive community quarantine measures, the Philippine National Police (PNP) said it will sustain checkpoint operations and inspections amid the government’s fight to contain the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic.

PNP chief Gen. Camilo Cascolan made this statement after the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) retained the authority of the PNP to conduct inspection procedures in quarantine checkpoints for drivers and helpers and cargo trucks and authorized persons outside residence (APORs).

He supported the reiteration of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) on the movement of cargo trucks and APORs under Executive Order 112, series 2020, adopting the IATF-EID’s Omnibus Guidelines on the implementation of community quarantine.

“On our call to serve the people in this perilous era, we will continue to sustain our checkpoint operations and inspections including all types of cargoes which supply essential goods for all, and those persons who are authorized outside for essential activities,” Cascolan said in a statement on Saturday.

The IATF-EID guidelines provide that only “workers in the logistics sector, such as cargo, trucking, courier delivery and port operations shall likewise be allowed to transit across areas placed under any form of community quarantine.”

Only a maximum of five personnel may operate cargo and delivery vehicles.

Cascolan said the IATF guidelines only allows essential or front-line workers to pass through any community quarantine checkpoints with their passes or pertinent documents.

All local government units have been directed to enjoin their issued executive orders based on the Omnibus Guidelines to better enforce the national measures set by the IATF-EID.

“We are always ready to take to greater heights our services that we can offer to the public and in harmony with the national government to win this battle against the unseen enemy, which is the Covid-19,” Cascolan noted. (PNA)