Police vehicles are allowed to use the EDSA busway – but only for emergencies.
To this day it is unclear what “emergency meeting” the passengers of a police convoy had to attend at Camp Crame, headquarters of the Philippine National Police, on the night of Feb. 25.
The public also has yet to be told categorically that the VIP passenger of the convoy was not the PNP chief himself, Gen. Rommel Francisco Marbil.
Members of the Department of Transportation’s Special Action and Intelligence Committee for Transportation had stopped the convoy of two sport utility vehicles led by a motorcycle of the PNP Highway Patrol Group along the northbound section of the busway in Ortigas. Video footage showed personnel in the convoy telling the DOTr team to let them pass, saying the “PNP chief” had to rush to Camp Crame.
The convoy then moved along, although one of the riders later returned to get the traffic citation ticket.
Marbil and PNP mouthpieces would only say that the convoy was transporting “senior police officials” to an “emergency meeting” at the PNP headquarters.
The only major police-related event on that night was the release of a 14-year-old Chinese student by his kidnappers. The boy was found abandoned along Macapagal Avenue in Parañaque. Police said they had to choose between securing the boy and chasing the vehicle that had dropped off the victim. Did Marbil have to be called in to make the choice? If this was the case, it does not speak well of the operational capabilities of the PNP.
Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla, whose department has supervision over the PNP, said he had summoned Marbil to an emergency meeting, but that he had given no instruction to any police officer to violate traffic rules. Remulla also did not state the nature of the emergency.
The situation was made worse by reports of an alleged memorandum to PNP offices, ordering the recipients to report police accomplishments that would overshadow the flak that Marbil was getting from the busway incident.
The EDSA busway is for the exclusive use of public buses, on-duty ambulances and fire trucks, police vehicles responding to genuine emergencies, and the convoys of the incumbent President, Vice President, Senate President, House Speaker and Chief Justice.
Malacañang had a more blunt comment on the issue. “If there is an emergency meeting, it would be better if they leave their homes early,” Presidential Communications Undersecretary Claire Castro said, stressing that “abuses” would not be tolerated.
It remains unclear, however, if sanctions will be imposed in connection with the latest manifestation of entitlement among top government officials.