Augmented police forces to stay in Cebu City’s MECQ

Police in Cebu City guard a checkpoint in Baragay Suba to continue discouraging residents from leaving their homes. CDN Digital photo | Gerard Francisco

CEBU CITY, Philippines — The more than 200 police officers augmented in Cebu City will be staying even if the city has recently downgraded its quarantine status.

Police Brigadier General Albert Ignatius Ferro, Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO=7) director, said the police would be sustaining its deployment and checkpoint arrangements in Cebu City which was now under the modified enhanced community quarantines (MECQ).

“We will sustain the deployments and checkpoints of our police here in Cebu City, and we will be following the guidelines based on MECQ standards,” Ferro told reporters in a teleconference Thursday, July 16.

When Cebu City was reverted back to the strictest form of community quarantine last June 15, and that lasted for one month, the Philippine National Police (PNP) fielded more policemen to help in enforcing health protocols here.

Around 100 police officers from the regions of Western and Eastern Visayas were sent here last June. A few days later, the PNP also dispatched at least 150 personnel from the elite group of the Special Action Forces (SAF).

Ferro, on the other hand, welcomed the decision of the national government’s anti-coronavirus task force to shift the quarantine status of the city, which is tagged as the epicenter of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak in Central Visayas, to a more relaxed MECQ.

“A gradual deescalation of the quarantine protocols is only appropriate, and it should not necessarily go through an abrupt change from ECQ to GCQ,” said Ferro in a mix of Cebuano and English.

The PRO-7 urged Cebuanos to continue following quarantine rules and regulations such as the mandatory stay-at-home, and observe health protocols such as wearing of face masks, and social distancing in public places. /dbs