The police here will start apprehending violators of minimum health standards in the villages during the day amid the spike in coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) cases, a police official said on Tuesday.
Lt. Col. Maria Theresa Macatangay, Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) public information officer, said in a presser that the new city police director, Col. Ernesto Salvador Tejada Tagle, modified the conduct of “Oplan Bulabog” (operations plan disturbance) –from the original template of having quarantine protocol enforcement during the night, the police will have day and night operations.
The modification in apprehending protocol violators starts on Tuesday.
“Yesterday (Monday), our station commanders simultaneously conducted an information drive down to the “sitio” (sub-village) about the modified Oplan Bulabog that we will be doing it in day-time. This is still in conjunction with the Oplan Puyo (operations plan stay at home) of the mayor in Cebu City,” Macatangay said.
Macatangay said the increase in the number of minors apprehended for violating the minimum health standards due to the rising number of Covid-19 cases.
On Monday, the CCPO reported that 56 minors were apprehended by the authorities for violating the health protocols. This was higher than the apprehended over weekend with only 48.
Macatangay said the parents of the apprehended minors were issued with citation tickets.
The police also apprehended a total of 179 curfew violators while 38 were held for not wearing their face mask.
Macatangay urged the barangay officials, village watchmen, and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) officials to help the cops to have an effective enforcement of executive orders issued by Mayor Michael Rama in strictly implementing stay-at-home policy.
“Yesterday, the police went around telling the communities that they will start stricter enforcement of the protocols. Today, as the cops on the ground implement stricter enforcement, they could no longer blame us because we have already reminded them of what is to be conducted,” she said in mixed Cebuano and English.
The city has registered a total of 6,968 cases of Covid-19 from mere 87 cases on New Year’s Day.
Source: Philippines News Agency