MANILA, Philippines – The national government warned on Wednesday, April 15, that traffic cops will conduct a stricter inspection of vehicles  after it was observed that many cars have been plying roads lately even as Luzon remains on lockdown.

Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles said on Wednesday that the Philippine National Police Highway Patrol Group (PNP-HPG) have been authorized to issue tickets against drivers found to be transporting non-authorized persons.

“If the driver or any of the passenger is unauthorized, HPG will issue  LTO-TOP (Land Transportation Office- Temporary Operator’s Permit) or MMDA-OVR (Metropolitan Manila Development Authority-Ordinance Violation Receipt) tickets against drivers of private vehicles transporting unauthorized persons outside residence,” said the spokesperson of the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) on the coronavirus pandemic.

Authorized persons include medical and healthcare workers, employees of essential services, and other frontliners.

People with quarantine passes are also allowed to leave their home, but only for essential tasks such as buying food, medicine, and other basic items.

There has been unusual traffic of cars on the road in recent days, which Nograles said caught President Rodrigo Duterte’s attention. (READ: Starbucks PH hits pause on reopened stores after long drive-thru lines)

“Napapansin po ito ni Pangulong Duterte at mga miyembro ng IATF  na medyo nagiging kampante na po ang ating mga kababayan pagdating sa ECQ (President Duterte and members of the IATF have noticed that people are now more complacent when it comes to the Enhanced Community Quarantine),” said Nograles.

Nograles said the PNP-HPG will now inspect all private vehicles to determine whether the driver and passengers are authorized.

“‘Yung mga lalabag, pasensiya (To the violators, sorry but those are the rules),” Nograles said.

The PNP said that as of April 13, there are have been 108,088 violators of ECQ rules. – Rappler.com