Unvaxxed cops won’t be allowed to do field work soon

Cebu City Police Office | contributed photo

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Officials of the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) are just waiting for the memorandum from the national headquarters before implementing the prohibition of unvaccinated personnel to do field work.

Police Lieutenant Colonel Wilbert Parilla, deputy director for operations of the CCPO, said that when this directive be officially implemented, at least 20 personnel from CCPO will be placed in the Cebu City Holding Admin Unit, wherein they will be assigned to do administrative tasks.

However, they have yet to coordinate with the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) for the guidelines since these personnel have supporting documents from their respective physicians prohibiting them from getting vaccines.

In line with the new directives signed by Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama on December 1, 2021, stating that starting January 1, 2021, only the fully vaccinated individuals are allowed to enter both the public and private establishments, Parilla said that policemen will not be exempted with this directive unless Rama will say so.

“They are not excused nga pwede sila musulod even di sila vaccinated even though police sila unya unvaccinated sila. Wala may exemptions, ang nakabutang [ra] no vaccination. Regardless og wa ka mabakunahi because of comorbidities [ you are not allowed to enter] unless naay new guidelines,” Parilla said.

(They are not excused even if they are policemen as long as they are unvaccinated. There were no exemptions, what was stated was no vaccination. Regardless if you are not vaccinated due to comorbidities [you are not allowed to enter] unless there are new guidelines.)

On Tuesday, December 7, 2021, the chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP), Police General Dionardo Carlos, said that unvaccinated police personnel will be re-assigned to ‘low risk’ duty so they can still render service.

“They will not be deployed for field work. More likely they will be assigned to do administrative work so that they will be less exposed to risks of COVID-19 infection,” Carlos stated in his press release.

These administrative functions, Carlos added, will only limit to close contact with the public clientele and co-workers.

As of December 7, at least 1,771 police personnel remain unvaccinated. Of the 1771, at least 937 have valid reasons such as due to allergic reaction, medical condition, pregnancy and religious belief. The remaining 843 are unvaccinated with no reasonable excuse.

/bmjo

READ: Less than 1% of PNP personnel remain unvaxxed for COVID-19