In Brgy Guadalupe, police to focus on Oplan Bulabog to help lower COVID-19 cases

Empty streets are seen in Barangay Guadalupe in this photo taken last January 24, 2021, as authorities implement a “Stay at Home Sundays” in order to curb the rising cases of COVID-19 there. | CDN digital photo

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Barangay Guadalupe now has the most number of COVID-19 cases among the 80 barangays in Cebu City.

As of Thursday, January 20, the barangay logged a total of 533 active cases, data from the Department of Health (DOH) show.

Because of this, Barangay Guadalupe is now the focus of the implementation of Oplan Bulabog by the Guadalupe Police Station, a means that is expected to lower active cases in the area of jurisdiction (AOR), says Police Major Jonathan Dela Cerna.

Dela Cerna said that its implementation is also seen as a deterrence against growing cases in the neighboring barangay of Kalunasan that now has 124 and the mountain barangays of Pamutan and Sapangdaku also have 19 cases each.  The three barangays are also located within the jurisdiction of the Guadalupe Police Station.

“Accordingly, ingon nila, ang sauna more on mga frontliners man to. Karon napun-an og mga travellers, mga workers, considering nga ang kining Barangay Guadalupe maoy pinakadako nga barangay sa Cebu City unya daghan manarbaho unya part sa requirements is pa test sila,” Dela Cerna said.

(In the past, most of the active cases were frontliners.  This time, we already have travellers and workers considering that Barangay Guadalupe is the biggest barangay in Cebu City and many are working here and many were made to undergo testing as part of their requirements.)

Quoting information that he received from barangay officials, Dela Cerna said, most of those who were recently infected were already vaccinated individuals.

With this, Dela Cerna said, he instructed his personnel to ensure police visibility and the strict implementation of movement restrictions especially at night to prevent people from loitering.  Those who are seen outside of their residence during curfew hours will be apprehended and fined.

Augmentation Team

A team consisting of 15 personnel from the Regional Mobile Force Battalion is giving them augmentation.  They are part of the 114 personnel who were sent to Cebu City on Friday, January 21, to help in the implementation of health protocols here.

Earlier, Police Lieutenant Colonel Wilbert Parilla, deputy director for operations of the Cebu City Police Office, said the augmentation team will focus on the 24/7 implementation of Oplan Bulabog.

READ: Stricter 24/7 Oplan Bulabog possible with additional regional cops – Parilla

Dela Cerna said he divided their augmentation personnel into five teams.  Three teams are assigned to day shift monitoring while two others are doing night shift.  They provide support to the 25 policemen coming from the Guadalupe Police Station who are deployed to the different Sitios there to ensure compliance with health protocols.

In addition to this, a mobile patrol team is also sent out to do day and nighttime recorida.

Their implementation of Oplan Bulabog has been successful so far.  However, Dela Cerna said, he could not yet provide data on the apprehensions that they’ve made because they are still in the process of consolidating their data as of Friday, Jan. 21.

Violators

Based on their past operations, Dela Cerna said, they are able to round up an average 20 to 30 violators per day, most of whom are without face masks.

Dela Cerna said that most of those who violate the face mask requirement are those coming from the interiors of the barangay. They saw during their monitoring that residents do not bother to wear face masks when they step out of their homes.

The Guadalupe police chief said most of the violators are between 20 to 35-years-old, which is also the age bracket for the new COVID-19 cases.

Existing data show that those tho get the infection are those who are always outside of their homes during the curfew hours and for non-essential reasons, he said.

But Dela Cerna is hopeful that their implementation of Oplan Bulabog will help bring down the active cases in the coming days.

“Dako kaayog impact kay ang atoang constituents madisiplina gyud knowing nga makakita silag police nga nang apprehend. Visibile naman atoang police. The way nga makit-an ang pulis, mausab gyud ang hunahuna sa mga tawo,” Dela Cerna said.

(This will have a big impact on [the behavior] of our constituents because they become disciplined when they see policemen.  The police are now very visible.  When people get to see the police, they always change their minds [and start to comply with health protocols.])

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