NCRPO to help enforce road clearing

MANILA, Philippines — The National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) would play a key role in enforcing President Duterte’s order to clear Metro Manila’s streets and sidewalks of obstructions in 45 days, an official said yesterday.

“The NCRPO is committed to support the directive of the President to reclaim public lands from unscrupulous persons who have made these lands private for their own use,” NCRPO chief Maj. Gen. Guillermo Eleazar said.

“We will give ample support to the clearing teams of the local government units, the DILG (Department of the Interior and Local Government ) and the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA),” he added. 

Eleazar said the police’s role in the “reclaiming” drive is clear: to protect and defend members of the clearing teams from vendors and “irate persons” affected by the road clearing.

“We would also monitor and dissuade these violators from coming back and use the public properties again. Historically, clearing efforts by the MMDA show that these violators come back to do their thing again. The police will be more active and aggressive in confronting these violators,” he said.

Eleazar warned that local officials who fail to comply with the President’s directive face suspension and other penalties.

The areas covered by Duterte’s order are “anything being used for private gain, such as those (occupied) by sidewalk vendors, jeeps and buses parked at illegal terminals, motorcycles and tricycles being parked in streets and sidewalks, carinderias and others,” he said.