Gamboa to NCRPO: Delegate, devolve travel pass issuance to police station commanders

GEN. Archie Gamboa, chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP) has directed the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) to delegate and devolve his powers to approve travel pass to local commanders in to hasten the issuance of document to travelers.

“Actually, I talked to Gen. [Debold] Sinas and told him why don’t you devolve your requirements because if you are going to get a travel authority, the requirements are very specific? Only health certificate and others,” the PNP chief said.

Gamboa said the delegation to sign and the devolution of the needed document could free up the NCRPO from the backlog of applications from people who need to undertake necessary travel, or even go back to their provinces amid the general community quarantine.

He said that for Metro Manila alone, the NCRPO has been processing around 500 applications.

“What’s the difference in appreciating from the regional headquarters if you are going to have it done by the chief of police? Maybe they will be carrying out your signature on a delegated capacity,” Gamboa recalled as telling Sinas.

He said the delegation of authority would free up the PNP from the applications that have already accumulated while also empowering the chiefs of police by allowing them to make appreciations of the requests.

Meanwhile, Gamboa said the PNP remains on full alert amid the pandemic, although their deployment, especially in police offices is “graduated.”

“We will assess in a few days whether we are going to downgrade that or not,” he said.

“The only reason why we went on red alert is because of the situation, and of course, it jives with the emergency situation as declared by the national authority,” he added.