CCPO beefs up security since lifting of curfew

CEBU, Philippines — The Cebu City Police Office has beefed up police presence around the city as it anticipates the possibility of crimes now that the curfew has been lifted.

Police Colonel Wilbert Parilla, deputy director for operations at CCPO, said on Friday that considering that curfew has been lifted since the start of the pandemic, they expect that most of the people will start getting home late thus, could be vulnerable to crimes.

“More police presence sa kadalanan, considering nga wala nay curfew so posible nga late manguli ang mga katawhan gikan sa mga parties or gikan sa gimik, so posibilidad ani mahimo silang biktima, so the chances is there nga mahimo silang biktima sa mga snatching, sa pickpocketing,” said Parilla.

He added they are preparing for the possibilities that drunks will get home late or worse alone in the streets, and could be prey of criminals.

Aside from this, since that resto bars will also reopen with no restrictions now, the police will just be conducting inspection and make reports should there be violations of the social distancing under the IATF guidelines.

Since the lifting of the curfew, Parilla said there are no changes in the police deployment although the apprehensions among violators have relaxed.

He said they are now focusing on the implementation of curfew ordinance among the minors.

On the day of the lifting of curfew, Parilla said they haven’t yet seen the convergence of crowds in the city, however, they anticipate that more people will go out and enjoy this weekend.

“Ang mga station, mga personnel the same way sa mga lower units, ato na silang gi-alert daan and then we gave them instructions to give specific deployment sa ilang mga personnel, like I’ve said more police presence sa kadalanan,” said Parilla.

Peaceful Rally

Meanwhile, the commemoration of the Edsa People Power Revolution in Cebu City yesterday has been peaceful with less rallies and protests staged around the city.

Parilla, however, said that there has been police deployment throughout the day to make sure that peace and order will still be in place.

“Most sad sa rally mahitabo sa hapon, so ato na ning gi-expect or gi-ready atong mga personnel ani nga mga eventualities but so far, wala pa,” said Parilla on Friday morning.

According to him, the police deployment will be just for security purposes to ease the traffic and the implementation of minimum health standard protocols. — GMR (FREEMAN)