Police eye ‘modified checkpoints’ to ease traffic

MANILA — Police said Tuesday it would roll out "modified checkpoints" to ease traffic after the Philippines relaxed its 2-month coronavirus lockdown to reboot the shrinking economy.

Checkpoints in EDSA, which snarled traffic in recent days, would be moved to other major roads like Katipunan, Commonwealth and Quezon Avenues, C-5 Road and Roxas Boulevard. The checkpoints will stay there for 2 hours at a time, said police Highway Patrol Group chief Brig. Gen. Eliseo Cruz.

Around 40 officers on board motorcycles will also randomly flag down motorists to check the purpose of their travel, he said.

"Ito pong EDSA kailangan nating paluwagin," he said.

(We need to de-congest EDSA.)

"Under po sa modified ECQ, mas marami na po tayong authorized person outside of residence na pinapayagan po ng IATF so umaasa po tayo na mas malaki ang volume ng mga sasakyan… Kailangan po nating gumawa ng ibang paraan gaya ng modified checkpoints," he added.

(Under the modified ECQ, there are more people who are authorized to leave their homes so we are expecting a bigger volume of vehicles. We need to employ other ways like modified checkpoints.)

PANOORIN: As of 5:15 a.m., masikip na ang daloy ng trapiko sa checkpoint sa Eastbank Road sa Pasig.

Makapal na rin ang volume ng mga motorista galing Rizal na papasok ng Metro Manila ngayong Martes ng umaga. | via @LyzaAquinoDZMM pic.twitter.com/CHZlMcF2LC

— ABS-CBN News (@ABSCBNNews) May 18, 2020

The modified ECQ or enhanced community quarantine reboots the economy by allowing select industries to re-open at full capacity.

Metro Manila, Laguna, Bataan, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, Zambales and Angeles City will be under modified lockdown until May 31.

Source From:https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/05/19/20/police-eye-modified-checkpoints-to-ease-traffic