DILG tells COVID-19 frontliners: Report cops who block you at checkpoints

DILG Spokesperson Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya. (Photo from his FB account)

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) on Tuesday asked health personnel and those who are considered COVID-19 frontliners to report police officers who are blocking them at checkpoints established for the enhanced community quarantine in Luzon.

“’Yung mga kababayan na naaantala sa checkpoints na yan… kung meron pong report, pwede tumawag sa DILG Emergency Operations Center. Kunin niyo po yung pangalan ng pulis yung humarang sa inyo at itawag niyo sa amin,” DILG Undersecretary and Spokesperson Jonathan Malaya told radio station dzMM.

(To our countrymen [referring to COVID-19 frontliners] who are being blocked at checkpoints if you have a report, you can contact the DILG emergency operations center. Get the name of the policemen who blocked you at checkpoints and report them to us.)

This came after the DILG received reports from the field that there were nurses being forced to walk at checkpoints and truck drivers delivering essential goods being prevented from passing through checkpoint areas.

“I heard that some nurses are walking at checkpoints. Nurses and doctors need not be blocked at checkpoints. Truck drivers have to be allowed unimpeded entry,” Malaya said mixed in Filipino and English.

Frontliners who have complaints may contact the DILG Emergency Operations Center through  hotlines 09274226300, 09617721668 and 028763455 local 881.

Malaya also reminded police officers to follow orders from the government’s Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) and the Office of the President.

“I think there is also different signals coming from the local government units. To our policemen, you take instruction from the President not from local government officials,” Malaya said.

Under the guidelines, those allowed to enter checkpoints are public health workers, private health workers and health workers and volunteers of the Philippine Red Cross and World Health Organization.

The movement of cargoes and delivery services of food, medicine and other basic needs going to and from Luzon should also be allowed to pass checkpoints.

Edited by JPV