Minors violating health protocols dwindling—cops

CEBU, Philippines —  After weeks of massive campaign against health protocol violators, the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) has observed a decrease in the number of violators among minors.

Police Lt. Colonel Maria Theresa Macatangay, information officer of CCPO, said that on Thursday they have apprehended a total of 386 violators, 49 of them were minors. She said the number of minors apprehended for protocol violations last Thursday was relatively lower compared to the 79 they apprehended last week.

The CCPO has been regularly conducting Oplan Bulabog during daytime since the spike in COVID-19 cases in the city and after having observed that a lot of minors are disregarding the stay-at-home order of Mayor Michael Rama. Oplan Bulabog was normally done during night prior to the recent surge.

All 11 station commanders under CCPO were directed to conduct Oplan Bulabog during daytime to ensure that the stay-at-home order is observed down in the sitio level.

Cops also coordinated with the barangay officials to help them in addressing the concern.

“Ang atoang Oplan Bulabog padayon gihapon even on the evenings para sa pag-enforce sa atong minimum health standards…duna gihapon ubay-ubay nga nasita, but ang naka nindot lang nagkamagay atong minors nga naka commit ani nga violations,” said Macatangay.

Macatangay also assured that they are randomly inspecting the business establishments in the city to ensure that the “no vaccination, no entry” policy is observed. She said that the 463 business establishments that they have inspected so far were all compliant to the health protocols.

According to Macatangay, business establishments that will be caught violating the protocols will be reported to the city government for possible suspension or revocation of their business permits.

“So far, atong mga establishments are very cooperative raman with our local guidelines, so we don’t have problem in coordinating with them and putting up measures to really encourage people to follow the protocols under alert level 3,” Macatangay said. — FPL (FREEMAN)