Mayor Edgardo Labella advised police in this city to be reasonable when dealing with possible violators after a resident complained of being arrested while going to work during the curfew hours.
“I always advised the police that for all intents and purposes, if naa’y good reasons for not being able to go home straight or for some reason na delayed sila – like lack of transportation and very difficult for them to go home because it’s too far away, I advise the police to have some kind of reason prevailing,” Labella said in a virtual press conference on Wednesday, January 27.
(I always advised the police that for all intents and purposes, if they there is good reasons for not being able to go home straight or for some reason they were delayed– like lack of transportation and if it is very difficult for them to go home because it’s to far away, I advise the police to have some kind of reason prevailing.)
Labella added that the city’s executive order must be followed. That EO provides that Authorized Persons Outside their Residence (APOR) are allowed to travel even during the curfew so long as they have the necessary documents.
A resident who works in a business process outsourcing (BPO) company complained on Facebook that he was stopped by police while on his way to the office. The cops arrested him for roaming the city during the curfew.
Curfew hours in Cebu City are from 11 pm to 5 am.
In a Facebook post on Tuesday, January 26, the resident said the police “did not even look at” their certificate of employment when he and other fellow workers presented their documents. Instead, they were brought to a detention facility for quarantine violators in Brgy. Tejeros.
“Gi-ingnan mi na adto na sa Tejeros kay igo ra mi i-process nya paulion dayon. Mao to ni kuyog mi kay ila man gipanguha amo license,” he told Rappler.
(We were told to go to Tejeros where we will be processed and then allowed to go home. We went with them because they confiscated our licenses.)
A photo attached to the post showed those apprehended inside the facility sitting close to each other, in disregard of physical distancing standards.
“Ako lang concern nila didto kay wala lagi silay safety protocols, ga dan-ok ra mi,” he said.
(My concern was safety protocols weren’t followed, we were crowded.)
“Sa ka daghan sa tao, dili na jud ka maka distansya,” he added.
(We couldn’t keep distance because there were so many of us.)
Labella is also set to discuss the issue of the enforcement of minimum health protocols in detainment facilities with the emergency operations center and the City Attorney’s Office.
“We should never, never, never abandon our minimum health protocols. These are very basic requirements,” he said.
Cebu City is under a modified general community quarantine, the least restrictive quarantine level.
The city, however, has seen a spike in cases after the holidays, racking in almost a hundred new cases per day. As of January 26, Cebu City reported 12,019 total cases. Of that, 986 are active.
— Rappler.com
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