Bato: Fixed checkpoints must go, too easy for felons

Philippine National Police Director General Ronald “Bato’ dela Rosa  INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / NINO JESUS ORBETA

Philippine National Police chief Director General Ronaldo “Bato” dela Rosa has ordered the dismantling of all fixed police checkpoints in keeping with President Duterte’s instruction, saying such security measures have become “irrelevant.”

“Mobile checkpoints” will now be the norm and will be used “anytime when needed,” Dela Rosa explained on Monday.

According to the PNP chief, fixed checkpoints are no longer considered effective as criminals have learned to evade them.

Such checkpoints had also become sources of extortion by unscrupulous policemen, he added.

Chief Supt. Oscar David Albayalde, chief of National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO), said one alternative to make police operations more effective against criminality is to increase mobile patrols, visibility operations and beat patrols.

“That does not, of course prevent us, from accosting suspicious persons in the streets when noticed by our patrol officers,” Albayalde said.

Earlier, the President said he wanted all checkpoints dismantled nationwide except in areas where they are still deemed necessary.

The President, however, has yet to lift the “State of National Emergency’’ he declared following the Sept. 2 bombing of the Roxas night market in Davao City, his home turf, which left 15 people dead and 69 others wounded.