PRO-7 ready for IATF decision on Cebu City quarantine status

Police Brigadier General Albert Ignatius Ferro, PRO-7 director, makes an early morning inspection in Barangay Basak San Nicolas in this June 29, 2020 photo.

CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7) is ready for whatever decision the Inter Agency Task Force (IATF) will make regarding the quarantine status of Cebu City.

Police Brigadier General Albert Ignatius Ferro, PRO-7 director, said that they would be heeding the IATF decision despite originally recommending that the city be put under one week of general community quarantine (GCQ) to give time for adjustments of security forces especially with the recalling of augmented personnel from other regions.

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Ferro said that even when the city would be placed under GCQ or MGCQ (modified general community quarantine), the security measures in the city and other areas of the region would remain.

“All the quarantine measures that we have implemented in the past six months will still be there,” said Ferro.

He said that aside from being cautions about possible spike of cases, the security measures like the checkpoints and quarantine control points would be maintained as it had resulted in the deterrence of crimes especially in lessening the volume of illegal drugs in areas of the region.

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According to Ferro, they will try to maintain the positive result of the strict implementation of health protocols that has helped in lowering the cases of COVID-19 in the City.

“We don’t want to go back to ECQ. We won’t lower our guard,” said Ferro.

He added that PRO-7 would double their efforts in contact tracing especially with the new program of the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) called “Task Force Kasaligan”, which would tap the help of criminology students in the city for volunteer contact tracers./dbs