LTO – 7 asks Labella to implement order requiring vehicle quarantine pass

This is a screenshot of LTO – 7 director Victor Caindec’s Facebook video during LTO – 7’s inspection along Gov. M. Cuenco Avenue on April 16, 2020.

CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Land Transportation Office in Central Visayas (LTO-7) is now requesting Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella to require drivers to present a vehicle quarantine pass if it meant reducing the volume of vehicles on the roads.

LTO-7 Director Victor Caindec made this appeal in a live video on Facebook where he showed the traffic situation along Gov. M. Cuenco Avenue on Thursday, April 16, 2020.

“Mayor, with all due respect, this must be put to a stop. It’s about time to implement (the need) for a vehicle quarantine pass,“ said Caindec.

Caindec recorded long queues of vehicles waiting to get past the checkpoint areas on the road. At one point, several ambulances had difficulty maneuvering away from the chokepoints.

In his video, Caindec also said that they inspected over 1,000 vehicles last Wednesday, April 15, 2020 traversing major thoroughfares in Cebu City despite a prevailing enhanced community quarantine (ECQ).

“What happened today is similar to what we found out on Wednesday evening… there are over 1,000 vehicles we inspected and we have ran out of breath hailing each and every one of them,” Caindec said in Cebuano.

He said that all drivers seemed to have valid reasons for them to go out of their houses, and most were able to present ECQ passes as supporting documents.

“Everyone has a good and valid excuse to go out of their houses — to go to the market to buy food, to do laundry, to buy water,” said Caindec.

The LTO-7 has deputized more policemen to help apprehend drivers not complying with the ECQ in Cebu.

It can also be recalled that close to 800 vehicles owners and passengers were caught with no proper quarantine passes on Tuesday, April 14, 2020 when the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) set up simultaneous checkpoints in several parts of the city./dbs