BAGUIO CITY April 20 – Police here uncovered the alleged human smuggling of stranded residents from other parts of Central Luzon and Metro Manila by cargo trucks delivering food and other essential products in the city over the past several weeks while the Luzonwwide enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) is in effect.
Police Col. Allen Rae F. Co, City Director of the Baguio City Police Office (BCPO), said that based on a random checkpoint along Marcos Highway, law enforcers were able to arrest 3 residents of the city who were stranded in Metro Manila who tried to sneak into the city without undergoing the prescribed 14-day quarantine by boarding cargo trucks and making it appear that they are helpers of the truck which is in gross violation of the guidelines of the Luzon ECQ.
He disclosed that the desperate stranded residents who want to go back to the city are in cahoots with erring drivers and helpers of cargo trucks who charge them more or less P1,000 per person just for them to be able to board the trucks and reach their destinations without being stopped in established police checkpoints.
The police official claimed that because of the discovered unscrupulous practices of the drivers and helpers of cargo trucks, mandatory inspection of cargo trucks will be done in established police checkpoints prior to entering the city to ascertain whether or not there are unauthorized persons on board the vehicles that have been provided with food lane passes.
According to him, the BCPO also tapped the support of the Highway Patrol Group (HPG) to help in monitoring the compliance of cargo trucks to the guidelines of the enhanced community quarantine so that there will be no extra individuals who will be on board the said trucks apart from the driver and helper.
Co disclosed that the apprehended individuals who tried to sneak into the city through the cargo trucks were from Irisan, Kias and San Luis and that they had been required to go on strict isolation while appropriate charges are being prepared against the owner of the cargo truck.
He warned drivers and helpers of cargo trucks attempting to use their vehicles as a means to illegally transport stranded residents outside the city that appropriate penalties will be imposed against them once they will be caught repeating similar offenses and that they will be barred from continuously entering the city in such case.
Co appealed to the drivers and helpers of cargo trucks to be patient when there will be delays in the checkpoints prior to entering the city because law enforcers want to make sure that there will be no unauthorized individuals who will be on board the said vehicles considering that what is being prioritized is the health and safety of the people, especially that the government is stepping up the fight against the dreaded Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19).
He theorized that the aforesaid illegal practice of cargo truck drivers and helpers had been going on for several weeks even at the height of the quarantine period that is why there has been a huge influx of people arriving in the city after the public transportation has been stopped right at the start of the Luzonwide ECQ.
By Dexter A. See
