The Philippine National Police – Highway Patrol Group (PNP-HPG) has taken on the mission of becoming the lead visitor’s law enforcement arm of the Department of Transportation (DOTr). This, after the DOTr and Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) signed a Memorandum of Agreement on March 11, 2019. DOTr Sec. Arthur Tugade and DILG Sec. Eduardo Año signed the stated commitment to authorize the PNP-HPG to impose site visitors policies and regulations within Metro Manila and nearby areas with the Inter-Agency Council for Traffic (i-ACT). As part of the agreement, the PNP-HPG is ready to install 300 uniformed personnel, composed of 25 Police Commissioned Officers and 275 Police Non-commissioned Officers, for the National Capital Region and Regional Units which might be tasked to reinforce logistical mobility assist in empowering i-ACT’s enforcement operations, in addition to to make sure the effective implementation of the settlement. Aside from the personnel augmentation, the group additionally dedicated its 24 cellular vehicles and eighty-two motorbike gadgets. Tugade mentioned that the collaboration of the stated corporations was the previous HPG Chief and modern-day LTFRB Board Member Antonio Guardiola’s concept to strengthen and empower the enforcement of traffic laws.
The transportation branch could be in the price of the designation of the i-ACT mission pressure chief, who can be responsible for the PNP-HPG’s personnel deployment and logistical aid of their respective posts. Moreover, an Inter-Agency Technical Working Group shall be set up within 30 days upon the committee’s approval to draft the implementing guidelines. The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) additionally prolonged its help to the operations of i-ACT. Without delay, PCG Commandant Admiral Elson Hermogino answered by assigning 25 PCG personnel to resource the i-ACT. The PCG employees are clean graduates who went through LTO schooling in guidance for their subject undertaking. Another batch of PCG employees is set to undergo discipline in the following weeks. With the help of the PNP-HPG and PCG, I-ACT will perform its general apprehension of unlawful public utility vehicles (PUVs) or “colored” motors to ensure public avenue protection for the driving public.