Eleazar: Licenses of PUV drivers who violate 1-meter distance rule will be confiscated
MANILA, Philippines — Police Lt. Gen. Guillermo Eleazar, chief of Joint Task Force (JTF) COVID Shield, on Friday warned that the licenses of drivers of public utility vehicles (PUVs) who will violate the one-meter social distancing rule between passengers will be confiscated.
“Actually for violations of drivers, inside the motor vehicles, what the Highway Patrol Group and our law enforcers are doing is to cite the drivers, confiscated ang licenses and then may corresponding multa yan at tutubusin nila sa LTO (Land Transportation Office),” Eleazar said in an interview with ABS-CBN News Channel when sought for comment about law enforcement for one-meter social distancing in public vehicles.
This came a day after the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases decided that the one-meter distance rule between passengers in public utility vehicles (PUVs) will remain until President Rodrigo Duterte gives his final decision on the physical distancing issue.
The Department of Transportation previously shortened the social distancing from 1 meter to 0.75 meters inside PUVs on Monday, Sept. 14. However, the rule was suspended after some top government officials disagreed with the move.
Eleazar also noted that there are police marshalls who will make sure that even PUVs in terminals will follow the minimum health protocols.
“Yes, our chief PNP Camilo Pancratius Cascolan directed our unit commanders in the field to have these marshalls inside the vehicle so it is being led actually by the Highway Patrol Group but of course, all other police station nationwide are doing this particularly in Metro Manila,” said Eleazar who is also the Deputy Chief for Administration of the Philippine National Police (PNP).
“So random lang kasi ginagawa natin because we cannot check all these vehicles but the point is if ever that there is violation na makikita ng law enforcers inside the vehicle and even ang sasakyan sa mga terminal, the drivers will be cited,” he added.
(We only do random inspection because we cannot check all these vehicles but the point is if ever there are violations inside the vehicle even those in the terminal, the drivers will be cited.)
