Fruit truck smuggles people thru Baguio quarantine borders

BAGUIO CITY –– A fruit truck was caught smuggling three people through the quarantine borders of the summer capital on Saturday (April 18), said Police Col. Allen Rae Co, city police director.

Acting on reports that people have snuck through checkpoints, the police conducted spot inspections and caught the men with no travel passes being transported by a truck registered with the H& E fruits & Vegetables Trading Co. (bearing plate no. WKL 965) along Marcos Highway, Co said.

The men indicated they were Baguio residents who hitched a ride at Rosario, La Union. Two of them share a surname. The truck driver’s address is in Isabela province.

The city government has maintained a border lockdown while it rides out the Luzon quarantine that would lapse on April 30. It has 17 recorded patients afflicted with the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) but 12 of them have since recovered.

Food trucks are normally waived through once drivers present the proper travel documents, but are not inspected to avoid delaying cargo.

But Mayor Benjamin Magalong has instructed checkpoints to include members of the Police Highway Patrol Group, which are empowered to examine trucks in the mountain city.

It has 17 patients afflicted with the coronavirus disease but 12 of them have since recovered.

LZB