Police Major Janelito Marquez, Labangon Police Station chief, briefs his personnel and some force multipliers before they were deployed Friday night, July 30, to ensure compliance with the 10 p.m. curfew. | Pegeen Maisie Sararana
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Streets in Barangay Labangon in Cebu City were near empty at 10 p.m. on Friday, July 30.
Only uniformed policemen and barangay tanods can be seen roaming the streets a few minutes ahead of the designated curfew hours.
Police Lieutenant Joel Dela Cerna, deputy chief of Labangon Police Station, said the conduct of their three-day recorrida helped in disseminating information on the implementation of longer curfew hours, from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m., now that the city is under Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine (MECQ) following the rise in active cases here.
Based on his assessment, most of the Labangon residents complied with the 10 p.m. curfew.
Dela Cerna made the same observation for the neighboring barangays of Tisa, Punta Princesa, Quiot and Buhisan that are also within their jurisdiction.
“95% nituman gyud ang atoang katawhan under sa atoang station 10 nituman. Ang atoang mga establishments, ang mga driver, wa pay 10 nipauli nasad sa ilang tagsa-tagsang mga balay,” Dela Cerna said.
(95 percent of the residents who are under the jurisdiction of station 10 complied with the curfew. Establishments and even the drivers went home before 10 p.m.)
The remaining five percent remained on the streets after curfew hours. These included 14 individuals whom police arrested for curfew violations.
Dela Cerna said they also warned at least five stores for staying open late at night.
Maximum Tolerance
Police Major Janelito Marquez, chief of Labangon Police Station, said he deployed at least 100 personnel – 50 policemen and 50 force multipliers – Friday night.
He instructed his team members to observe maximum tolerance during their operation.
The 14 arrested curfew violators were made to spend the night at the gymnasium in Barangay Labangon. They will be sent home after they render community service or pay the corresponding fines.
Establishments that will continue to ignore their warnings could also lose their business permits. He will be making a report of their violation to the Business Permit and Licensing Office at City Hall.
Active Cases
July 29 data from the COVID-19 tracker of the Department of Health in Central Visayas show that Barangay Labangon now has 1,212 confirmed COVID-19 cases, of which 89 are considered as active cases.
Tisa already logged a total of 1,199 cases of which 116 are active cases. Punta Princesa, for its part, still has 82 active cases from its 743 total cases of the infection.
Barangay Quiot has logged a total of 413 cases of which 47 are active cases while Buhisan has logged 211 cases of which 27 are active cases. / dcb
Here are some photos from the Friday night operation of policemen under the Labangon Police Station:
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