CEBU CITY—The chief of the Police Regional Office Central Visayas (PRO 7) is pushing for the extension of the general community quarantine (GCQ) here in the first few days of September.
Police Brig. Gen. Albert Ignatius Ferro said he will recommend to the Inter-Agency Task Force Cebu that it will be better for the city to stay under GCQ while awaiting the arrival of additional policemen in the city.
The GCQ status in the city is set to end on August 31.
Ferro disclosed that policemen from Region 6 and other parts of Region 7 who served as augmentation team here are set to return to their mother units on Monday.
“I am very conservative. I would rather recommend a status quo. Maybe give us seven days so that the vacuum that left by our augmentation will be filled out first before we could come with a more relax community quarantine level,” said Ferro, who the commander of the Regional Joint Task Force-Central Visayas COVID Shield.
Last June, 54 policemen from Region 6, and 53 policemen from Region 8 arrived in the city to help enforce quarantine protocols.
The city needed more policemen at the time after it was considered as the country’s coronavirus disease (COVID-19) hotspot.
The number of COVID-19 cases in the city has declined in the past few weeks as the active cases dropped to 617 as of August 27.
Ferro said the void that will be left by the augmentation team will be filled by 250 patrolmen and patrolwomen who are set to be deployed in the city.
The Cebu City Police Office has also started recruiting civilians for its Task Force Kasaligan.
The task force, which will have at least 200 members, will help police enforce quarantine protocols.