City nabs more colorum vehicles at its borders

There is an increase in the number of colorum vehicles being apprehended  by police personnel as the local government continues to strictly man its borders  despite encouraging reports of a downtrend in coronavirus disease 2019 active cases in the Summer Capital for the past weeks.

In the regular management committee meeting, Oct. 26, of local officials led by Mayor Benjamin Magalong at Baguio Convention Center, City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office chief Antonette Anaban said six colorum vehicles were nabbed from October 1 to 25 as compared to two and five for the months of September and August, respectively.

For the same period, she said 1,889 travelers were sent home at the borders for lacking the needed documents while 1,786 were turned away in September and 486 in August which also saw the apprehension of 14 travelers with fake documents.

“We should never let our guards down and become complacent despite the welcome news of declining Covid-19 cases.  Everyone must continue to observe minimum public health standards and have themselves vaccinated if they haven’t yet,” the Mayor said.

The city continues to turn away  an average of 160 travelers without proper documents on weekends and 40 to 70 visitors on weekdays.

The Mayor said Covid-19 cases in the city have decreased from an average of 280 cases a day a month ago to just 70 cases a day currently.          

Baguio’s borders are located at Marcos Highway, Tuba Viewdeck, Irisan, Magsaysay,Longlong Tacay,  Tiptop, Kias, Asin Tadiangan, Ambiong and at Baguio-Tuding.

Having strict border control is one of the city’s Covid-19 Delta variant contingency plan’s key result areas, Anaban said. — Gaby B. Keith