DUMAGUETE CITY, Negros Oriental—With the recent spike in the number of COVID-19 cases in Cebu City, the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) is preparing to bolster its security measures during the holiday season.
Police Lieutenant Colonel Wilbert Parilla, deputy director of operations of the CCPO, said cops were given directives to step up the monitoring, especially on the interior ares of the city, where a lot of people are expected go out because of Christmas and New Year celebrations.
“We are keeping an eye to the interior areas where we found in contact tracing to be the areas with the most COVID19 cases recently,” said Parilla.
Parilla said that for now, the police commanders of all the 11 stations were directed to coordinate with barangay officials in their respective areas of responsibility and use effectively the members of Task Force Kasaligan in monitoring interior areas of the city.
TF Kasaligan is a task force whose duty is to support the police in implementing health protocols
Read: Task Force Kasaligan an effective tool in the Cebu CIty’s fight against COVID-19
According to Parilla, the residents from interior areas were observed to be the ones often violating the health protocols, especially when there are no designated police officers and force multipliers patrolling the area.
Parilla shared that recently, they ran into an area in Barangay Mabolo where a crowd celebrating a fiesta gathered. They were told to disperse. He said there were also reports that parties were being held in some areas, which is still a violation of health protocols set by the city government.
/bmjo