SAF troops to secure hotspot brgys in Cebu City

Policemen from the Police Regional Office 8 prepare to board a ship going to Cebu City at the Ormoc City Seaport. | INQUIRER.net File Photo

CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Special Action Force (SAF) of the Philippine National Police (PNP), who arrived this noon, June 26, 2020, will be deployed in identified hard lockdown areas.

Police Brigadier General Albert Ignatius Ferro, director of Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7), said the 150 SAF troops would also be assigned to quarantine control points and checkpoint areas.

Read: Elite police team to arrive in Cebu this weekend

Ferro said that aside from helping the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) secure areas and control the residents from going out, Ferro said that they would also be making sure that there would be no “familiarization” among the securing personnel and the residents by deploying the SAF troops.

“The SAF will be part of the quarantine controls and the hard lockdown areas so that walay pabor-pabor. Sometimes the familiarity of police being detailed of the police stations nearby is the cause of those going out,” said Ferro.

As of today, June 26,  there are already 2,000 policemen from other regions and offices around Central Visayas including the SAF troops, who were deployed to augment and assist the CCPO.

Read: More forces coming to Cebu City to implement ‘total lockdown’—Cimatu

Ferro said that the police force would be strictly monitoring the hotspot barangays to make sure that residents would be heeding the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) guidelines in line with the efforts of the government to contain the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)./dbs