No more quarantine control points in Cebu province — CPPO chief

CPPO Director Engelbert Soriano. CDN Digital photo |

CEBU CITY, Philippines — All 50 quarantine control points (QCPs) in Cebu province have already been pulled out but their port border control within entire province will remain.

Police Colonel Engelbert Soriano, Cebu Police Provincial Office director, confirmed this today, August 2, a day after Cebu province was downgraded to general community quarantine from modified enhanced community quarantine.

The Cebu provincial police’s QCPs are designated areas where policemen from all 50 police stations in the province conduct checkpoints to ensure that health protocols are followed.

However, Soriano added that their port border control points were still there to check on the entry and exit points of neighboring provinces like Siquijor and Negros Oriental.

“We have already pulled out QCPs, except on borders. Border natin sa Siquijor, border namin sa Negros Oriental, sa North Cebu, sa Tri-Cities, but as provided by the provincial government, we will not be posting border restrictions (within municipalities and cities in the province),” Soriano said.

(We have already pulled out QCPs, except on borders. Borders in Siquijor, in Negros Oriental, in North Cebu, in Tri-Cities. As provided by the provincial government, we will not be posting border restrictions (within municipalitues and cities in the province).)

Soriano said that even if the Cebu province is already under GCQ, this would not mean that they would also lower their guard in strictly implementing health protocols such as the wearing of face masks.

Recently, Soriano said that they had been coordinating with the respective local government units of every municipality and city to make sure that their constituents would still adhere to the protocols.

Should the provincial government release adjustments on the implemented protocols, then they will adjust their actions as well.

Soriano said that there would still be apprehensions on violators in the province but these would be minimal. 

For now, he could not disclose specific figures of apprehensions for the past weeks.

Meanwhile, the police officers of Cebu City Police Office are resetting their quarantine control points into staging points.

Police Lieutenant Colonel Wilbert Parilla, CPPO deputy director for operations, said that they had set up at least six staging points in Cebu City such as in Plaza Independencia; Barangay Labangon; Barangay Pardo; Fuente Osmeña; Barangay Talamban; and Barangay Sirao.

These six staging points will be manned by a composite team composed of at least 10 individuals from the local police, the Cebu City Transportation Office, barangay tanods, and some force multipliers.

Staging points are areas in Cebu City where police would be deployed to randomly check vehicles as to their passenger capacity and ensure that protocols were being observed.

Parilla said that they would only check on Certificates of Employment and identification cards from residents during the curfew hours which would be from 10:00 p.m. to 4:00 a.m.

RELATED STORIES

Cebu province under ‘GCQ with heightened restrictions’

Soriano to provincial cops: Keep yourself safe from COVID-19 virus

Border controls to be set up in August 1 in Cebu City, Cebu province

Mandaue, Lapu return to MECQ status from Aug. 1 to Aug. 15

/dbs