80% of Filipinos want police checkpoints back – survey

MANILA, Philippines – Almost 80 percent of Filipinos want the restoration of police checkpoints across the country due to its effectiveness against crime, a survey said on Monday.

A survey commissioned by the Philippine National Police showed that 78.4 percent of Filipinos want checkpoints to stay even after the recent elections.

The survey, conducted from May 27 to June 11, said police checkpoints should be visible on major roads as it is an effective law enforcement measure.

The survey was conducted by the Asia-Pacific Centre for Research (ACRE) from a sample of 4,400 respondents.

Police checkpoints for election security were set up beginning January 10, five months before the election, as part of the PNP’s goal of having honest, orderly and peaceful elections.

Records from the PNP National Election Monitoring and Action Center (NEMAC) and the National Operations Center of the Directorate for Operations revealed that several illegal guns were seized in these checkpoints.

A total of 3,049 persons were arrested for election gun ban violations. A total of 2,654 firearms were confiscated, plus 292 explosives, 694 bladed weapons and toy guns.

The same survey also found that nearly nine out of 10 or 85.5 percent of Filipinos from age 16 years old and up were aware of the Comelec-led checkpoints. –Abigail Kwok, INQUIRER.net