Mobile checkpoints can help deter crimes and catch illegal drug smugglers, Senator Panfilo Lacson said on Sunday.
It was President Rodrigo Duterte who ordered the dismantling of police checkpoints nationwide saying that these must be put up only if there is credible information that a high-value suspect will cross a certain road.
The President noted that security checkpoints of the Philippine Army, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, Moro National Liberation Front, and the Philippine National Police are causing travel delays in Mindanao.
But Lacson said checkpoints are more effective since they are not expected by those who transport illegal drugs, firearms and other contrabands.
Because of this, mobile checkpoints should be “retained, even enhanced,” said Lacson, a former chief of the Philippine National Police.
“Fixed checkpoints should not have been deployed in the first place.”
He said that these type of checkpoints are a “breeding place for extorting policemen.”
In his speech in Cotabato City on Saturday, Duterte said only “necessary” checkpoints should be maintained by the authorities.
“Except really if it is necessary, only if it’s necessary, only if there is specific reason to do it, I am ordering all checkpoints dismantled,” Duterte said.
Malacañang has yet to issue guidelines for Duterte’s latest order. The National Police and the Armed Forces of the Philippines could not say when the order would be enforced.
Police checkpoints were set up nationwide following Duterte’s declaration of a state of lawlessness after the night market bombing in Davao City on September 2.