Pampanga’s shift to GCQ unleashes ‘monstrous’ traffic jam, stranded passengers

This screen grab from a video taken by Rey Navales at Barangay Dau in Mabalacat City shows long stretches of vehicles as Pampanga province shifted to general community quarantine on Monday. REY NAVALES

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO—Pampanga province’s shift to general community quarantine (GCQ) on Monday (June 1) unleashed massive traffic jams that led to hundreds of passengers getting stranded.

Col. Jean Fajardo, Pampanga police chief, described the road bottlenecks as “monstrous.”

Long stretches of vehicles filled what used to be almost empty four-lane roads at the Bacolor-San Fernando boundary of the Jose Abad Santos Avenue and the San Fernando-Angeles boundary of the MacArthur Highway, she said.

Inside Angeles City, vehicles hardly moved in the villages of Balibago and Pulong Cacutud near Ayala’s Marquee Mall.

Fajardo said police fielded patrol cars to ferry passengers to boundaries of towns and cities.

The provincial government had stopped providing free rides since Saturday (May 30). Few jeepneys were allowed to return to the road as many others failed to secure permits from the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board.

As of Monday noon, Fajardo said police have not made any arrest for violations of quarantine protocol.

She said police have maintained checkpoints that were erected since March 16 when enhanced community quarantine was imposed by President Rodrigo Duterte on Luzon.

“We have been lenient this Monday because we wanted to help motorists adjust to the GCQ so showing company ID was enough,” Fajardo said.

Edited by TSB