BCPO WARNS VIOLATORS OF ENTRY PROTOCOLS

08 July 2021 – The Baguio City Police Office (BCPO) warned violators of the city’s existing entry protocols that appropriate charges will be filed against them once they will be caught entering the city without the appropriate travel documents and registration in the established registration platform to ensure that individuals infected with the dreaded Corona Virus Disease (COVID) 2019 will not spread the same in the country’s Summer Capital.

BCPO City Director Police Col. Glenn Lonogan stated that he already consulted the assigned legal officer of the local police force on the appropriate charges that can be filed against the violators of the entry protocols to send a clear message to travelers that they must to comply with the required travel documents before being allowed entry to the city.

He added that the BCPO also increased the police personnel managing the various quarantine checkpoints around the city to ensure the implementation of stricter border controls pursuant to the marching orders of Mayor Benjamin B. Magalong to prevent the unnecessary entry of travelers who do not possess the appropriate documents and who did not register with the city’s registration platform.

The BCPO official disclosed that police personnel had also been tasked to scrutinize travelers who inform them that they are simply passing through the city and proceeding to other destinations because there are many motorists who simply use pass-through to evade the presentation of the required travel documents in the different quarantine checkpoints.

Lonogan claimed that travelers will have to undergo the established processes in the quarantine checkpoints to ascertain their real destinations and for them to be required to go through the triage instead of them evading the same by claiming that they will simply pass through the city when in fact their real destination is the city.

According to him, the utmost cooperation of travelers to existing entry protocols and minimum public health standards is required to help contain the continuous spread of the deadly virus in the city and other neighboring communities to pave the way for the gradual and safe opening of the city for tourists that will be instrumental in reviving the heavily impacted economy.

Lonogan appealed to travelers to understand the slight delays they will be encountering in the different quarantine checkpoints because the assigned police personnel are simply performing their assigned duties and responsibilities to check the completeness and authenticity of their travel documents for the overall health and safety of everyone.

He emphasized that during these trying times, it is important that people should understand the purpose of stricter border protocols, the restriction of the movement of people and the limitation of mass gatherings as these are all geared towards preventing the activities to be the source of a sudden surge in COVID-19 cases that will greatly impact on the local health care system and stress the frontliners who had been directly involved in the fight to contain the spread of the virus for over a year now. – Dexter A. See