The 114 policemen from the Regional Mobile Force Battalion in Central Visayas will augment the policemen from the CCPO. | Photo courtesy of Cebu City PIO
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Cebu City policemen can now implement Oplan Bulabog 24/7 in the city with the deployment of 114 policemen from the Regional Mobile Force Battalion in Central Visayas (RMFB-7) as an augmentation force to the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO).
Police Lieutenant Colonel Wilbert Parilla, deputy director for operations of the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO), said that with this augmentation force, they could really implement the curfew, observance of health protocols like the wearing of face masks.
Parilla, however, said that they only got 114 RMFB-7 policemen because some of them came all the way from other provinces and had to be isolated.
With this additional manpower, he said they could now address the problem of violators, who would just wait, stay inside their houses for policemen to finish their Oplan Bulabog at past midnight and then they (violators) would come out again.
He said this had become a challenge for them especially since they had been multitasking in implementing Oplan Bulabog and the curfew ordinance and conducting operations against criminals.
With the added personnel, the CCPO official believed that they could now strictly enforce Oplan Bulabog and hopefully, the COVID-19 cases would also drop.
“As early as we can, atoa na ni gideploy. Balik na sad ta, strikto na sad ang atoang implementation sa wearing of face masks and implementation of health protocols,” Parilla said.
(As early as we can, we already deployed them. We are back to being strict in the implementation of the wearing of face masks and implementation of health protocols.)
“Gibahin nato na. Atoang iconsider kung asang dapita. Depende nana sa station commanders considering nga sila man ang nakabalo sa ilang areas. Basta ang atoang directive is efocus sila for the minimum health protocol implementation,” he added.
(We have already divided them. We considered what areas to send them. That will also be the discretion of the station commanders, considering that they are the ones who know their areas well. Our directive is they focus for the minimum health protocol implementation.)
From the past COVID-19 surges, police have been monitoring each barangay with most cases and that they had deployed more personnel there.
With this, they assessed that the stricter their implementation, the lesser the COVID-19 transmission since mobility had been limited.
Parilla also said that they would divide how many policemen to deploy especially in Barangay Guadalupe, which showed according to data from Department of Health had the highest number of COVID-19 cases in the city with 447 cases from the period of January 10 to 19.
Police Major Jonathan Dela Cerna, chief of the Guadalupe Police Station (Police Station 9), said that they received 15 police personnel from the RMFB-7 who would help them in manning and monitoring their areas of jurisdiction.
Barangays Guadalupe, Kalunasan, Pamutan, and Sapangdaku are areas under the jurisdiction of Police Station 9.
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