LUCENA CITY – Police arrested seven suspected violators of the government enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) order aboard a local government ambulance at a checkpoint in Infanta town in Quezon province on Saturday.
Major Joselito Araja, Infanta police chief, reported that an ambulance registered to the local government of nearby General Nakar town was flagged down at a checkpoint in Barangay (village) Magsaysay around 8 p.m.
Aboard the ambulance being driven by Norberto Kaharian Astrera were passengers Chariviel Boneo, Marisol Liban, Princess Charry Peñaojas, Carolyn Joy Peclaro, Donna Peclaro, Francis Buendicho and Camille Boneo, all natives of Infanta and General Nakar.
Police tagged the passengers as “unauthorized persons outside residence” from Metro Manila where they all currently reside.
“The coworkers of the ambulance driver had already told him that it is illegal for him to use the vehicle to transport unauthorized passengers. But he still went on and made the trip to Manila and back,” Araja told the Inquirer in a phone interview.
According to investigators, the suspects allegedly “connived with each other to disobey the quarantine order and decided to travel without authorization using the municipal ambulance.”
The seven passengers were turned over the local government of Infanta to undergo the mandatory 14-day quarantine period while the charges were being prepared against them.
Araja said they allowed the ambulance driver to return the vehicle to General Nakar and attend to other emergencies.
“But after returning the vehicle, the driver was nowhere to be found. We will also file a case against him,” said Araja.