Police Lieutenant General Guillermo Eleazar, chief of the Joint Task Force COVID Shield, visited Cebu City on June 27, 2020, to oversee deployment of augmented personnel and implementation of ECQ protocols. | Contributed Photo
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Police Lieutenant General Guillermo Eleazar, chief of the Joint Task Force COVID Shield, clarifies that his visit in Cebu City is not to enforce militarization.
During the rounds of Eleazar in the checkpoint areas and police station visitation this afternoon, June 27, 2020, Eleazar told reporters that the goal of the augmented forces were not to impose militarization but more police visibility.
“Ang presence natin dito is police visibility, hindi ito militarization. Di ba laging sinasabi natin na pag merong krimen, or ayaw nating maghanap ng krimen, kailangan natin ng police. Kaya nga nandito ang police natin to serve as deterrent, para mag selbing deterrent sa mga gustong mag violate ng ating mga protocol,” said Eleazar.
(Our presence here is police visibility and not militarization. Is it not that we need the police if their is a crime or if we wanted to prevent a crime from happening. That is the reason the police are here. They are here to serve as deterrent to those who would like to violate our protocols.)
Read more: COVID Shield chief to oversee Cebu City’s ECQ protocol implementation
According to Eleazar, with the police visibility, the implementation of the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) protocols were being imposed properly with the cooperation of the community based on his observation during his patrol around the city today.
For his assessment this day, Eleazar said that the streets remained with fewer vehicles and people.
He noted that almost all of those vehicles out were authorized persons outside their residences (APOR) which could mean that there had been a substantial compliance of the community.
With this, Eleazar encouraged the public to follow the simple guidelines of the ECQ and to respect the authorities imposing them, and he reminded the police to impose with maximum tolerance and also respect the rights of the citizens./dbs