CEBU CITY—Emotions ran high at the so-called “graduation” of 64 policemen, who were discharged from a recovery facility for coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patients on Monday.
Police Regional Office-Central Visayas Brig. Gen. Albert Ignatius Ferro, himself, had to fight back tears when he witnessed the release of the 64 policemen from the Cebu City Resource Management and Development Center (Cremdec) in Barangay Taptap.
Cremdec has been used as a recovery center for infected policemen.
“It’s truly a beautiful day for us,” Ferro told the recovered policemen via a video call.
A total of 301 PRO 7 personnel have been infected by COVID-19, and 137 of them have already recovered.
Ferro admitted he felt down when a number of policemen started falling ill due to COVID-19.
“There were sleepless nights that I experienced and it was really hard to express such feeling,” said Ferro.
Ferro said he was just so happy to see the infected policemen recover since there were times when he was unsure how the policemen will overcome the health crisis.
The recovered policemen will be allowed to take a rest for about a couple of weeks before reporting back to work.
“You cannot really explain the joy of being a father to his children. My apology for being emotional, I work so hard and I am passionate if the people affected are my men,” Ferro said.
Ferro went on to call on the public to help the government in the fight against COVID-19.
“This is a different war and for me, the mindset in this medical health emergency is that everybody has the responsibility. It should not only be the police, military and health workers who will be responsible. It should be the fight of every Filipino,” said Ferro.