Leisure bikers in Cebu City given final warning: Follow health protocols or else …
Police Lieutenant Colonel Wilbert Parilla, deputy director for operations of the Cebu City Police Office
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) is giving leisure bikers a final ultimatum to follow health protocols or the CCPO will recommend to ban leisure biking in the city to the Emergency Operations Center (EOC).
Police Lieutenant Colonel Wilbert Parilla, deputy director for operations of the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO), gave this final warning after Cebu City policemen apprehended 16 leisure bikers for violating health protocols.
Parilla said those apprehended were caught not properly wearing their face masks or having no face masks at all and did not follow social distancing rules.
The police official was referring to Sept. 18’s joint checkpoint operation of the city’s Traffic Enforcement Unit, Cebu City Transportation Office (CCTO) and Prevention, Restoration, Order, Beautification, and Enhancement (PROBE) team at the Transcentral Highway along the exit of Maria Luisa in Barangay Busay.
They started around 5:00 a.m. and stopped at 8:00 a.m.
The apprehended bikers with identification cards were issued citation tickets while those without ID cards were brought to the Ramos gymnasium to pay a fine or render community service.
Parilla said he did not know how many bikers were brought to the Ramos gymnasium and how many were issued citation tickets.
The apprehensions were also made after Parilla issued a warning last Sept. 13 to leisure bikers to follow health protocols or the CCPO will recommend the banning of leisure biking in the city.
With this, Parilla reminds the public to be compliant with all protocols implemented in the city amid the city’s quarantine status.
“Sa mga bikers kay atoa ning ihigpit nga ipatuman not even nga we are already in GCQ but still ang atoang health protocol. Magpadayun ang strikto nga pagpatuman because as what we have observed, every time nga murelax ta, mutaas pod ang atoang cases,” Parilla said.
(We will strictly implement our health protocols to the bikers eventhough we are already in GCQ. We will continue to strictly implement [health protocols] because as what we have observed every time we relax our implementation the cases will also increase.)
He also said that they would conduct checkpoint operations this entire week in the area not only on the weekends.
Parilla said that should the bikers continue to violate health protocols then they [police] would be forced to recommend to the Cebu City EOC to ban leisure biking in the city.
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