Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) personnel man the border area of Talisay City and Cebu City along the South Road Properties. | Gerard Francisco
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Policemen manning border checkpoints in Cebu City will just remind motorists entering or leaving the city to secure the needed passes.
Police Colonel Hector Grijaldo Jr., Cebu City Police Office chief, said this as the Cebu City government started implementing the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) starting noon today, March 28, 2020.
Grijaldo said that they would not be strict today, the first day of the implementation of the ECQ because this would be the day to just inform motorists about what they would next time need to enter the city.
Read more: BREAKING: Cebu City closes its borders
“Sa pagkakaron, hatagan lang usa nato sila og pabor ug iconsider sa nato ilang gibuhat. Karon pa ingon pa man ni sila og sulod, sa sunod nga mogawas na sila, icheck na nato ilaha mga certificate or quarantine pass,” said Grijaldo.
(For now, we will give them a chance and we will consider what they are doing. For now, we will allow them to stay inside their vehicle, but next time they will be required to get out of the vehicle so that we can check their certificate or quarantine pass.)
Read more: Distribution of quarantine passes in Cebu City starts on Saturday
On the following days, Grijaldo said that those, who would be planning to enter and exit the city, would have to expect stricter policemen.
These policemen will be asking the documents required by the government for persons to be allowed to be outside their homes.
Grijaldo, who also inspected the 14 border checkpoints, also reminded those manning the checkpoints about the persons exempted from the ECQ.
These included the frontliners such as medical personnel, police, media, those working in the supermarkets and government offices.
“Makit-an nato limitado na, diseplinado na, organisado na ang atong mga katawhan,” said Grijaldo.
(We can see that there are fewer, disciplined, and organized people on the streets.)
Read more: CCPO to implement ‘lockdown’ in barangays
As the next step, Grijaldo said they would soon be implementing border checkpoints in the barangays to ensure that those who had passes that were allowed to go out, were also the only ones seen along the streets./dbs