Unvaxxed Cebu City cops face relief

CEBU, Philippines —  The Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) will begin transferring unvaccinated police personnel to the admin holding office once the national directive of relieving unvaccinated cops will be officially implemented.

Lt. Colonel Wilbert Parilla, deputy director for operations of CCPO, said they only heard about the directive in a televised interview with the PNP chief Dionardo Carlos.

“Nga tanang mga personnel who are not vaccinated will be put in admin holding, so we will just wait for the actual memorandum para atong ma-implement,” said Parilla in a press conference yesterday.

Only 20 cops under CCPO are not yet vaccinated, according to Parilla. Some of these unvaccinated personnel are pregnant while some others have comorbidities.

As Mayor Michael Rama has announced prohibiting the non-fully vaccinated entry to certain establishments starting January 1, Parilla said police personnel are not exempted from the rule.

“They are not excused nga pwede sila mosulod even di sila vaccinated, since it is a directive from the mayor, so anybody na mo-violate, dili na pwede ato gyud na silang (unvaccinated cops) i-apprehend even police pa sila,” said Parilla.

Parilla emphasized that the Rama's directive grants no exemption.

He said CCPO is awaiting the formal memorandum to see if the option of getting a swab test for unvaccinated workers of the private sector could be also applied to the cops.

“We will wait for the guidelines kung allowed pa ba gihapon ni silang mo-duty or ipa-swab test, how often,” said Parilla.

Should the directive of the PNP push through, Parilla said they will not be having that much of a problem implementing this since most of the CCPO cops are now vaccinated.

In an interview, Carlos said he “finds it practical to just reassign unvaccinated personnel to ‘low risk’ duty so they can continue rendering 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 said. — JMD (FREEMAN)