CCPO: Liquor ban not lifted yet

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Cebu City resto-bars are still not allowed to serve liquor inside their establishments as of Monday, October 4, 2021, as the local government tries to resolve conflict in the guidelines of the newly issued Executive Order 143.

Police Lieutenant Colonel Wilbert Parilla, deputy director for operations of the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO), clarified that the liquor ban is not yet lifted in the city. Last Friday, October 1, the city government released the new guidelines included in the new EO.

Among the guidelines were requiring bar owners to acquire a special permit from the Business Permits and Licensing Office (BPLO) to serve liquor to customers, which need employees to be fully vaccinated.

With this requirement, Parilla said that there were conflicts and concerns raised considering that the Department of Labor and Employment does not require and mandate workers to be vaccinated. Some employees also raised concerns that being vaccinated is against their beliefs and some, their religion.

Parilla said that the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) will finalize all the guidelines first. Pending the drafting of new guidelines, they temporarily prohibit  bars to open and serve liquor to customers.

“But what happened is adtong Friday (Oct 1) palang, daghan na sila nga nag open bisan pa og wala sila maka comply. One of the requirements sa atoang Executive Order, ang mga establishment, especially managers and crews should be fully vaccinated. But based on our observation, dunay manager, mga crew nga wala pa ma vaccinated,” Parilla said.

(But what happened last Friday was that there were a lot of resto-bars that opened but did not comply with the requirements yet. One of the requirements included in the executive order was that managers and crew should be fully vaccinated. But based on our observation, there are managers and crew who are not yet vaccinated.)

“Usa na sa atoang gipaabot sa EOC during sa amoang special meeting ganina with regard anang mga bars. It was agreed nga they should stop  first, dili lang sa sila mu operate…[To know] unsaon pag reconcile ang tanang problems nga ni occur aron naa nay klaro nga guidelines,” he added.

(That is one of the concerns we raised to the EOC during our special meeting earlier regarding bars. It was agreed that they should stop first and not operate yet… [To know] how to reconcile all problems that occurred for clearer guidelines.)

Parilla further clarified that the liquor ban is not yet lifted and drinking liquors in public areas is still prohibited. However, he said, selling and buying liquors is allowed.

Parilla also appeals to the bar owners to also police their own employees should they will be again allowed to open and serve liquor to their respective customers.

As of this writing, Parilla said that the members of the city’s EOC are already finalizing the guidelines as they, too, would like resto-bars to reopen.

/bmjo

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