Bicol IATF directs LGUs to remove checkpoints

LEGAZPI CITY –– The Bicol Inter-agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Disease (IATF) has ordered the immediate dismantling of checkpoints set up by local government units (LGU) in the region.

The BIATF issued the circular of dismantling checkpoints, including those created not in coordination with the members of the Joint Task Force COVID (JTFCV) Shield.

The circular also reminded LGUs that only JTFCV Shield was authorized to establish checkpoints manned by their personnel.

Lawyer Anthony Nuyda, director of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) in Bicol and chair of the BIATF, said in his circular that “while we laud the efforts of the LGUs in protecting their respective jurisdictions by limiting the entry of some individuals, we deem it necessary to impose restrictions to avoid conflicting regulations, which only cause confusion and difficulty among individuals and businesses.”

The circular said that in any conflict of rules or guidelines, “human dignity and the safety and needs of the individual shall prevail.”

The IATF circular was in response to mounting complaints from those considered Authorized Persons Outside Residence (APOR), who were not allowed to pass through LGU checkpoints unless they secure local travel clearances.

The IATF has observed that despite the issued validated list of APORs, where the presentation of basic or regular identification cards would suffice, LGU checkpoints refused to honor this citing their own initiated travel clearance protocols.

LZB