The Philippine National Police approved a draft memorandum circular relegating the task of ensuring the safe and secure transport of controlled chemicals over land from the PNP to accredited logistics providers.
The draft memorandum authorizes the shift in ensuring the safe delivery of low-risk controlled chemicals from police escorts to logistics companies. This does not cover high-risk controlled chemicals, which still need to be accompanied by police officers.
The approval came after long discussions between stakeholders and PNP officials that took several months. The stakeholders, comprised of exporters, importers, manufacturers and export-development government agencies, explained difficulties and delays to the business community of the need for a police escort when transporting toxic substances.
“In the previous regulatory regime, transport of controlled chemicals entailed the physical presence of the police officers who were compensated for their professional services but in the proposed guidelines, the duty and responsibility of transporting these controlled chemicals will be undertaken by accredited logistics providers which in turn will be subject to the regulatory policies and guidelines of the PNP,” said the circular.
The use of logistics providers will “unburden the PNP of depleting its human resources whose services are better [used] for the national government’s campaign against illegal drugs,” it said.