Eleazar: Travel not restricted within NCR Plus areas under GCQ bubble

Philippine National Police (PNP) officer-in-charge Police Lieutenant General Guillermo Eleazar clarified on Monday that the screening of travelers should not be done in checkpoints inside the “National Capital Region Plus.”

At the Laging Handa briefing, Eleazar made a statement in light of the reports that some checkpoints inside NCR, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, and Rizal or the NCR Plus were conducting a screening of travelers.

“Within the bubble hindi na natin ire-restrict ang travel ng ating mga kababayan. ‘Yan na rin po ay tulong natin sa paglago muli ng ekonomiya,” he said.

(Within the bubble, we won’t be restricting travel of our fellow citizens. It’s our way of helping the economy.)

He pointed out that the screening should only be done at the checkpoints at the boundaries of the NCR Plus and areas outside the general community quarantine bubble.

Earlier, Interior and Local Government spokesperson Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya said the checkpoints in Metro Manila are for the enforcement of curfew hours and not for the implementation of travel bubble.

Due to the surge of COVID-19 cases, the national government placed Metro Manila, Rizal, Bulacan, Cavite, and Laguna or the “NCR plus” under a GCQ bubble with a new set of regulations.

Residents from the NCR Plus are not allowed to go outside the region, while residents outside the GCQ bubble are also not allowed to enter the NCR Plus except for essential workers and other purposes.  — RSJ, GMA News