PNP creates ‘study group’ for police strategy in ECQ, GCQ areas

FILE -Highway Patrol Group policemen check the licenses and quarantine passes of motorists passing through Edsa on Wednesday as authorities tighten down on private vehicles traveling amid the Luzon-wide lockdown. —GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE

MANILA, Philippines — Philippine National Police (PNP) has created a “top-level study group” that will craft police strategy to enforce protocols of general community quarantine (GCQ) and extended community quarantine (ECQ) in some areas in the country due to continued surge of COVID-19 cases.

“I have designated Police Lieutenant General Cesar Hawthorne R Binag, PNP Chief of the Directorial Staff to head a study group that will craft a new Memorandum Circular that will strategize police operations and administration in response to the extension of ECQ in Metro Manila, Central Luzon, Calabarzon, and selected provinces and cities,” PNP chief Gen. Archie Gamboa said in a statement on Saturday.

“This PNP strategic think tank is also tasked to map-out PNP courses of action for all other areas under General Community Quarantine which is now the new normal,” he added.

This is in response to President Rodrigo Duterte’s recent announcement that ECQ will remain in Metro Manila and other high-risk areas in Luzon until May 15 while (GCQ), which is less strict than ECQ, was placed in areas with low to moderate risk of infection from novel coronavirus, which causes the infectious illness.

Gamboa added that the country’s police force is open to coordinating with the Department of Social Welfare and Development, Department of Health and local government units to ensure protection of government workers and health workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.