Border checkpoints to be reimplemented in Cebu province starting Jan. 17 — police

CDN Digital file photo

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Starting January 17, the Cebu provincial cops will reimplement border checkpoints to check if public vehicles follow the 75 percent passenger capacity.

Police Colonel Engelbert Soriano, Cebu Police Provincial Office (CPPO) director, said that they would reimplement the Executive Order 35B of Cebu province that Governor Gwendolyn Garcia made to address the COVID-19 situation in the province.

Last August 6, 2021, Garcia issued this order while the province was under the General Community Quarantine allowing only non-air-conditioned public utility vehicles to operate at a reduced capacity of 75 percent.

READ: New regulations for PUVs in effect starting Aug. 6

Soriano added that he already directed all the police stations under his watch to reinforce the border checkpoints in their respective areas of jurisdiction starting at 6 a.m. on Monday, January 17.

“By Monday at 6 a.m., we will start implementing or re-implementing EO35-b of the honorable Governor Gwendolyn Garcia para to address the rising cases of Covid, not necessarily sa (in the) province of Cebu pero sa (but in the) country as a whole lalo sa (especially in) Metro Manila so bago pa makarating sa atin so unahan na namin (so before they can reach us we will stop them first),” Soriano said.

As of January 14, the Department of Health in Central Visayas logged 177 new cases in Cebu province bringing the total active cases to 858.

Soriano said that they supposedly implemented this last week but postponed it because the province continued to recover from the onslaught of OdettePH.

Soriano said that should there would be drivers who would be caught violating this directive, they would file a report on these erring ones and coordinate with the Land Transportation Office (LTO) for appropriate action.

“Yes, as usual nakita naman natin yung naging cooperation nila initially when we first implemented EO 35, this time we expect the same cooperation from all them dahil alam naman natin na nakatulong yun talagang halos mawala ang Covid sa probinsya nung na eliminate natin yung mass transmission nito. So hopefully, this time tayo ang maiwan na probinsya na walang Omicron,  wala masyadong cases,” he added.

(Yes, as usual we saw their cooperation initially when we first implemented EO 35, this time we expect the same cooperation from all of them because we know that this can really help since COVID cases were reduced in the province and that was the time when we eliminated the mass transmission of the virus. So hopefully, this time we will be the province who is left without Omicron, we will have less cases.)

Soriano further said that they would also strictly monitor the wearing of face masks inside these vehicles similar to how they implemented this order last year.

Earlier, the Interagency Task Force in its Resolution No 157 reverted Cebu province under Alert Level 3 which will take effect on Sunday, January 16, 2022, until January 31, 2022. Soriano, for his part, said that they had yet to receive the directives from the Capitol regarding this.

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