‘No lockdown in Iligan, only strict searches on people, vehicles’

ILIGAN CITY – No lockdown. Only tight search processes for people and vehicles entering the city.

This has been the clarification being issued by the city’s police command since Sunday night when word circulated that a lockdown would be implemented soonest, based on an announcement of the City Information Office through its Facebook page.

The word spread like wildfire and even prompted several residents to pack up things so they could travel out of the city before a set deadline could be announced.

“Be informed that only containment action is being implemented through strong checkpoints and several mobile checkpoints at the heart of the city including police visibility to negate the occurrence of a similar incident in Marawi City,” a Facebook post by the city police read.

It was issued around 9 p.m. Sunday.

“Anybody can get in and out of the city provided that they have not violated any law or caught carrying contraband, firearms, explosives, and others, as everybody will have to pass through strict and thorough security inspection,” the post further read.

Soon after, the City Information Office (CIO) took down its earlier Facebook post and promised to make another announcement related to the issue.

Netizens took the CIO to task for the confusion. Journalist Divina Suson particularly lambasted Joe Pantoja who, she said, even allowed himself to be interviewed by a Cagayan de Oro radio to announce the impending lockdown.

It turned out that Pantoja’s premature pronouncements were made while city officials were in the middle of a meeting to discuss, among others, the possibility of imposing a lockdown as a measure to prevent a spillover here of the Marawi siege.

Since Wednesday last week, the police has been operating a checkpoint near the mothballed plant of the National Steel Corporation in Barangay Suarez to search the incoming vehicles and passengers.

This has caused a significant slowing down of the movement of vehicles into the city, even taking four hours of wait at peak travel hours of the day.  SFM

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