CCPO: Serving of liquor rampant in mountain barangays

Police authorities have revealed that liquor is being freely served in Cebu City’s mountain barangays despite

CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) has reported that serving liquor, which has been banned in the city has become rampant in the mountain barangays.

As monitoring increased in the city center, the establishments in the urban areas have learned to follow the liquor ban religiously knowing that the police and the city government were strictly imposing it.

Establishments in mountain barangays, however, are still serving liquor because the monitoring has not been as intensified there.

Police Lieutenant Colonel Wilbert Parilla, said in a press conference aired live on the CCPO Facebook page, that they received reports of establishments or stores violating the liquor ban.

“Atong pahimangno sa mga naninda og mga ilimnung makahubog, mga mamaligya, nga dili lang usa kay basin mao na nuon niy hinugdan ngano daghan naay mga desgrasya dira sa Transcentral kay nakainom nya mobyahe nya moresulta sa disgrasya,” said Parilla.

Some of the erring establishments are in secluded areas, while some establishments are on the roadside.

Parilla said they are verifying all reports and have sent warnings to the establishments being reported.

The CCPO warned the establishment owners to stop serving liquor or else they will be reported to the Business Permit and Licensing Office (BPLO).

The BPLO would then issue show-cause orders to the establishments commencing the investigations to be done by the city government, which may lead the establishments to lose their permits.

“Warning ni sa tanan diha sa mga namaligyag (alcoholic beverages) sa bukid, ato lang usang sundon ang executive order sa mayor kay kung mahuman na sad ni ug moubos na ang mga positive cases (COVID-19), ilibkas ra sad ni sa atong mayor,” said Parilla.

The Emergency Operations Center (EOC) already said that the active cases may be leading to a downtrend in the next few days as the new cases remain around 100 per day.

Councilor Joel Garganera, the deputy chief implementor of the EOC, hopes the trend will continue coupled with a rise in recoveries.

“Relatively the last 3 days sa EOC Active Cases ni ubos by as much as 100+cases a day. Our intervention (EOC) dili lang ni confined sa Test, Trace, Isolate and Treat but also the enforcement of our protocols by our PNP, Kasaligan, Probe and Brgys. And half of it , I must say the cooperation of the public.”

“But then again, as long as Covid is still with us anything can happen. So we really need everyone’s cooperation to sustain this until the rollout of our vaccination,” said Garganera. /rcg