POLICEMEN have accosted more than 7,000 motorcycle riders for violating rules on pillion riding set by the National Task Force against COVID-19, the Joint Task Force COVID Shield yesterday said.
Lt. Gen. Guillermo Eleazar, JTF COVID Shield commander, said the 7,091 riders were caught back-riding with people other than their spouses or live-in partners, a violation of the NTF guideline that only allowed pillion riding for couples.
Eleazar said the individuals were accosted in operations conducted nationwide from July 10 to July 18, as the government eased restrictions on back-riding to slowly address the problems on transportation.
“For a long time, motorcycle riders had repeatedly requested the government to allow at least their partners to back-ride with them due to limited public transportation. And now that the government finally granted their request, they openly and brazenly disregarded the rules that the government was asking from them in return to ensure their safety from coronavirus infection,” Eleazar said.
When the pillion riding was allowed by the task force, the JTF COVID Shield, in coordination with PNP chief Archie Francisco Gamboa, instructed all police commanders across the country to check on the compliance of motorcycle riders on the two conditions set by the government — that back riders must be their spouses or live-in partners, and that barriers must be installed in between the driver and passenger.
Eleazar said that based on the feedback from the ground, most of the motorcycle riders accosted were caught back-riding with other relatives, friends, neighbors and other people.
Of the 7,091 accosted violators, a total of 6,476 were not only unauthorized couples, but also with no installed barriers, while 615 of the accosted violators have installed barriers, all of them are unauthorized couples, Eleazar said.
Police Regional Office 7 (Central Visayas) has the most number of accosted violators with 1,755 unauthorized couples, followed by Police Regional Office 5 (Bicol) with 741, Police Regional Office 6 (Western Visayas) with 737, and Police Regional Office 3 (Central Luzon) with 675.
Eleazar said police forces on the ground, particularly those supervising and manning the Quarantine Control Points (QCPs) also accosted a total of 7,680 motorcycle riders, who were proven to be married or living-in couples, but have no installed barriers. All of them were warned that they must comply with the barrier installation on or before the grace period.
Interior Secretary Eduardo Año earlier announced that the NTF 19 has approved the recommendation of the JTF COVID Shield to extend to July 26 the July 19 deadline for motorists to comply with the approved motorcycle barriers.
Año said that the extension is aimed at ensuring the compliance of motorcycle riders to the two approved body shields — the Bohol prototype and the Angkas design.
NAVOTAS
Meanwhile, locked down Navotas City reported a total of 1,932 arrests for community quarantine violations.
In its bulletin, the Navotas City said that of the number of arrested, 1,652 were adults, while 99 were minors. Authorities said 181 individuals composed of 178 adults and three minors were caught in a 24-hour period from 10 a.m. Saturday to 10 a.m. Sunday.
Navotas City is on lockdown for 14 days due to high COVID infections.
PASIG
The Pasig City government yesterday placed several areas in barangay Manggahan under localized lockdown due to a spike of COVID cases in the vicinities.
Mayor Vico Sotto identified the areas as Pipino, Labanos, Ocra, and Ubas all located at Napico, Manggahan.
As of Sunday, there are 53 Covid-19 cases recorded in the said jurisdictions.
Sotto said the four areas will be locked down until further notice.
The city government will distribute food packs to affected families to reduce the number of individuals going out of their homes. Only authorized persons, such as frontliners, will be allowed to go out. — With Christian Oineza
