Police Lieutenant Colonel Wilbert Parilla, deputy director for operations of the Cebu City Police Office. | file photo
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Cebu City police will be recommending to the city government to give an ultimatum to establishments that will continue to disregard overcrowding in their respective areas.
As they could only record and report violations to the city’s Emergency Operations Center and the Business Permits and Licensing Office, Police Lieutenant Colonel Wilbert Parilla, deputy director for operations of the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO), said that they will recommend to the mentioned offices to give erring establishment owners an ultimatum should they still continue to disregard health protocols in the city, particularly social distancing protocols.
Parilla made this statement following reports they received about overcrowding of bars along General Maxilom Avenue over the weekend.
“Wala naman ta’y curfew, wala ta’y bawal sa paghatag og liquors. So more on protoocol nalang gyud sa number of customers sa sulod sa establishment,” Parilla said.
(We no longer have a curfew, serving of liquors in establishments is no longer prohibited. So we need to focus more on the protocols or the number of customers in the establishment. )
According to the guidelines from the Inter-Agency Task Force Against COVID-19 on areas under Alert Level 2, a maximum of 50 percent indoor venue capacity is allowed for fully vaccinated individuals and those below 18 years of age, even if unvaccinated. Outdoor capacity allowed is 70 percent.
However, Parilla said that they will be following the directives of Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama, and monitoring the establishments that will be accommodating more than their 100% customer capacity.
Parilla said that the city’s BPLO will have the say on what disciplinary sanctions these establishments will face.
Following these overcrowding reports, Parilla said they have noticed that the public is now much more relaxed, perhaps, forgetting that the threat of the virus still exists.
“Mao nay usa sa wrong notion, nag tuo sila nga nahuman na ang pandemic. The pandemic is still there,” he added.
(That is a wrong notion, they thought the pandemic is already over. The pandemic is still there.)
With the easement of the restrictions here, Parilla said that they are diverting their focus from the establishments to crime-prone areas to also counter possible crimes that may happen as they expect an increase of crime incidents following the lifting of the curfew.
READ: CCPO anticipate rise in crime incidents after lifting of curfew
On February 24, Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama removed major COVID-19 restrictions during the celebration of the city’s Charter Day.
“Pag declare nga wa natay curfew, so atoa sang deployment, instead of focusing sa mga establishments, atoa gi deploy sa mga identified nga crime prone areas. There are adjustments made as to the occurrence of crime…So far no increase in crime incidents,” he said.
(When lifting of the curfew was declared, our deployment, instead of focusing these to establishments, we deploy them to identified crime-prone areas. There are adjustments made as to the occurrence of crime…So far there is no increase in crime incidents.)
/bmjo
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