Still a lot of vehicles on the streets of Cebu City even under ECQ

Police check vehicles traveling along Osmeña Boulevard in Cebu City in this photo taken on June 15, 2020, the first day the city was reverted to ECQ. CDN Digital photo | Gerard Vincent Francisco

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Police in Cebu City are still stunned on the number of vehicles out on the streets despite the city reverting back to enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) due to the rise of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases.

Police Colonel Cydric Earl Tamayo, officer-in-charge of Cebu City Police Office (CCPO), said they are still having problems handling the large number of vehicles on the streets a week since Cebu City was  placed under ECQ again.

“Maka ingon ka ba nga wala man nagka gamay ang sakyanan,” said Tamayo.

(We can say that the number of vehicles didn’t lessen.)

Tamayo said the problem is that most of the vehicles were able to show  quarantine passes, which means that almost all the were authorized to travel.

Because of this, Tamayo said that in their last meeting with the Cebu City Government on Monday, June 22, there was a suggestion that the quarantine passes be updated as a means of reducing vehicles on the streets.

Read: CCTO closes 11 roads for traffic rerouting scheme starting Monday

And as expected, with the rising number of vehicles out everyday, the figures number of violators also increased.

Tamayo said that since the implementation of the second ECQ,  CCPO, together with the city traffic office personnel, issued at least 1,401 ticket citations, 40 temporary operation permits (TOP), and impounded 47  motorcycles. They also apprehended 315 individuals for executive order violations and 127 for other violations. /bmjo