Major General Melquiades Feliciano, the Deputy Chief Implementor of IATF in Cebu, speaks during an online presser on Wednesday, July 8,2020. | Screenshot of the live video from PRO-7
CEBU CITY, Philippines— Troops from the Philippine National Police’s (PNP) Special Action Force (SAF) will still be present in Cebu City even if the city downgrades to general community quarantine (GCQ) on July 16, 2020.
This was what retired Major General Melquiades Feliciano, the Deputy Chief Implementor of IATF in Cebu, said during an online presser hosted by the Police Regional Office-7 on Wednesday afternoon, July 8, 2020.
The possibility of downgrading the quarantine status of Cebu City from enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) to GCQ was mentioned by Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu, the IATF overseer in Cebu, during a press conference on Tuesday, July 7.
Read: Cimatu confident Cebu City will be downgraded to GCQ on July 16
But even of that happens, Feliciano said the SAF troops will still remain in the city to be deployed in barangays or areas that will be under lockdown even when the city is under GCQ.
“Kung mag GCQ man yan, maron din siyang mga granular or zoning or lockdown. And hopefully kung mag-GCQ man ‘yan, we can specifially determine kung asaan talaga yung presence ng virus, para ma ayos specific yung lockdown at tsaka magkakaroon tayo ng specific surgical approach,” he said.
(If we will downgrade to GCQ, there will still be granular or zoning or lockdown. And hopefully, if we go back to GCQ, we can specifically determine where the presence of the virus is, so we can arrange the specific lockdown and have a specific surgical approach at the situation.)
Read: SAF arrival a big boost for PRO-7 in battle against COVID-19
According to Feliciano, the SAF will help them in containing the virus in a barangay by controlling the movement of its residents.
“Doon sila mag fofocus. We concentrate kung nasaan yung mga efforts natin, yung implementation nung lockdown na yan. Although ma o-open siya, but there are specific areas na talagang istristriktohan natin,” he added.
(That’s what they will focus on. We will concentrate where our efforts are, the implementation of the lockdown. Although we will be opening or loosen protocols, there will be specific areas where we will still be strict.) /bmjo