Ferro to reprimand police imposing exercise punishments

Police Brigadier General Albert Ignatius Ferro, director of Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7) inspects Barangay Basak San Nicolas on Monday, June 29, 2020. CDN Digital photo | Gerard Vincent Francisco

CEBU CITY, Philippines — There will be no punishments involving exercises and walking kilometers that would be imposed among enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) protocol violators.

This was clarified by Police Brigadier General Albert Ignatius Ferro, director of Police Regional Offie in Central Visayas (PRO-7), after reports about inhumane punishments allegedly imposed by policemen to those who were caught violating the ECQ protocols.

In a phone conference with the reporters this afternoon, July 3, 2020, Ferro said that he would be “reprimanding” the policemen and would remind them that punishments that would force violators to walk kilometers or perform other exercises would not be allowed.

“That’s my directives. We just follow the apprehension and filing of the case, wala na to gipa push-up, gipa lakaw (There will be no one to be punished by doing push-ups, walk kilometers),” said Ferro.

He said that the police were always told to implement the rules with maximum tolerance, but they might also need to be reminded especially when handling elderly people.

However, Ferro said that the policemen would continue to be strict in implementing the protocols and those who would violate would be immediately apprehended.

But Ferro assured that he would be talking to his policemen regarding the punishments given to the violators and would make sure that there would be no other punishments other than the filing of charges that would be imposed on the violators./dbs