Police Lieutenant Colonel Wilbert Parilla, deputy director for operations of the Cebu City Police Office, says the liquor ban may be lifted but other protocols are still enforced like the curfew in Cebu City. | CDN Digital file photo
CEBU CITY, Philippines —The Cebu City Police Office or the CCPO is warning owners of establishments serving liquor in the city to follow protocols or lose their permits.
The warning came amid Cebu City government’s lifting of the city’s liquor ban.
Police Lieutenant Colonel Wilbert Parilla, CCPO deputy director for operations, that despite lifting of the liquor ban in the city, establishment owners must still follow the protocols agreed upon, especially the health protocols and the 50 percent capacity requirement that establishments could only cater to.
“Before ni na lift ang ban, duna tay consultation sa mga resto bar owners, usa sa amoang nasabutan is kung dunay violations nga mahimo ang establishment. It will mark as usa ka puntos nga nilapas na sila. The third time nga makalapas na sila sa violations, diha na nga ang licensing office mo issue na og closure order,”Parilla said.
(Before the ban was lifted, we have a consultation meeting with the resto bar owners and one of the things that we agreed upon is when an establishment will be caught committing violations. It will mark as one point against them for the violation. The third time that they will be caught committing the violations, then that will be the time that the licensing office will enter and issue the closure order.)
Three strikes
The deputy director for operations of the CCPO said that the establishment owners would be warned twice if they would violate the protocols agreed upon during their consultation meeting and for the third time, then that would be the time for the closure order.
For the first offense, the owner will be warned and the second offense the owner would lose his special permit to serve liquor.
He also said that it would be easy for them to inspect these establishments because the owners would already be required to post on their entrances the required capacity of customers that they must cater to.
“Ilaha na nga i paskil sa sa ilang establishemento nga dali ra nga makita sa atoang inspection team. Also, together with the business permit nga authorized sila mag sell og liquor,” the CCPO police officer said.
(They must post this at their entrances where it would be visible to the inspection team. Also together with the business permit, they would be required to post their business permit authorizing them to sell liquor at the entrance of the establishment.)
CCPO exec: Curfew still in effect
He also reminded the public that the liquor ban might have been lifted but the curfew was still being enforced.
He was referring to the citywide 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew that the city government was implementing.
Parilla said that they would apprehend curfew violators especially if they would be customers of these establishments violating the curfew rule.
He said if the establishment would still be open during curfew hours, this would also be considered as a violation against the business owner.
He reiterated that three violations would mean losing the owner’s business permit.
He said with the curfew, these establishments should be ready to close 30 minutes before the start of the curfew at 11 p.m.
Parilla also said that they would be stricter in implementing the protocols such as the curfew especially since they observed that lesser people outside would mean lesser crimes.
This would also mean that they would apprehend face mask violators.
He said this would be following the order of President Rodrigo Duterte to apprehend those who would fail to appropriately wear their face masks.
He said those apprehended would be turned over to the concerned local government offices, who would handle the fines or penalties for these violators.
/dbs
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