CCPO deputy operations director Police Lieutenant Colonel Wilbert Parilla. | file
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) has observed that crime rate has dropped ever since police visibility was increased here to help strictly implement health protocols.
Lieutenant Colonel Wilbert Parilla, CCPO deputy director for operations, said the 24-hour police visibility and limited mobility of the public are the two main factors in the drop in city’s crime volume.
Parilla said that their regular monitoring in interior portions of Cebu City, which is under modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) from August 1-15, 2021, may have helped in stopping possible crimes.
He said for the entire month of July, they have recorded at least 20 crime incidents in the city. In the first three days of August, no crime was recorded so far.
Parilla and the CCPO force hope this trend will be sustained so they can concentrate in implementing health protocols amid the rise in the number of COVID19 cases in the city.
Parilla admitted that while crime has dropped, the number of health protocol violators has increased since the start of MECQ period on August 1.
From their August 1 operation alone, police apprehended 119 adult violators and rescued six minors. Most of their violations fall on the failure to follow the curfew hours.
On August 2, police apprehended a total of 128 adults and rescued 17 minors. Violating curfew hours was still on the top of the list.
With this, Parilla appeals to the public again to comply with all the health protocols in the bid to lower or stopping the spread of the virus in the city.
Meanwhile, Police Major Jonathan Dela Cerna, chief of the Guadalupe Police Station, said majority of the residents in the four barangays under his jurisdiction have already started to get used to complying with safety protocols.
The barangays under the watch of Station 9 are Guadalupe, Kalunasan, Sapangdaku, and Pamutan.
He said that they have two composite teams composed of local police, personnel from the Philippine Army, barangay tanods, and force multipliers deployed during daytime and nighttime in all areas under their station. Each team consists of 10 individuals.
According to the Cebu City EOC Data Center, since Monday, August 2, Barangay Guadalupe alone has 195 active cases.
/bmjo
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