ECQ violators who were arrested in Talisay City on Easter Sunday, April 12, 2020, were brought to the Capitol Social Hall on April 13 for an audience with Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia. | CDND File Photo
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Cebu province is now heading to its fifth week into the enhanced community quarantine but the number of persons violating the movement restrictions remains high.
In Talisay City, the number of apprehended violators registered at 88 on Saturday, April 25, 2020, the highest for the entire month which now totals to almost 2,000.
Police Major Gerard Ace Pelare, chief of the Talisay City Police Station, said the increase in the number of apprehended ECQ violators may be attributed to the augmentation forces coming from the Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7).
With more personnel patrolling the ground, Pelare said the police can now better cover and watch the city that has 22 barangays and a population of around 250,000.
“Mas nidaghan ang police nga nanakop. Sa una man gud, dili kaayo nato ma-cover ang tibuok Talisay inig roving. Karon, nindot kay naa na may additional. Mas nidaghan ang manakop, maka-roving mi sa suot-suot dapita nga part, mao na nga daghan ang nadakpan,” Pelare said.
(More policemen have been deployed. Before, we cannot cover the entire city during our patrols. Now, we could really see the improvements that resulted from the presence of additional personnel. We now have more people to apprehend the violators, we can now visit the interiors of the barangays that is why there is an increase in the number of arrests made.)
According to the data posted by the Talisay City Public Information Office, the number of ECQ violators in the city now totals to 1,829 as of April 25.
Barangay Lawaan I have the most number of ECQ violators with 423 individuals apprehended.
Barangay Tangke, which is a known hotbed of illegal drugs even before the coronavirus outbreak (COVID-19), comes in with the second-highest number of ECQ violators having 226 persons arrested.
Talisay City’s hinterland villages of Tapul and Manipis, however, have maintained to have no apprehended violators yet. / dcb