THE owners of three restobars in Cebu City that violated the curfew have been ordered to explain before the Business Permit and Licensing Office (BPLO) at the City Hall.
This after the BPLO issued a show cause order. Suspension of business permits awaits the restobars if their owners’ explanations could not satisfy the BPLO.
Cebu City implemented a new curfew starting on Dec. 2—one is for adults, while the other is for minors.
The City has made the curfew for adults shorter to three hours: from 12 a.m. to 3 a.m. The curfew for minors is longer: from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m.
The previous curfew was for all, regardless of age. It started at 11:30 p.m. and ended at 4 a.m.
Despite the shorter curfew for adults, the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) lamented that there are still violators.
As to the three restobars, CCPO deputy chief for operation Lt. Col. Wilbert Parilla said the business establishments clearly violated as they still served liquor to their adult customers past 12 midnight.
Parilla said the people running the restobars should not end serving their adult customers at 12 a.m., the start of the curfew. The serving of liquor should stop before 12 a.m.
The restobars were caught serving their customers during a recent Oplan Bulabog, a CCPO program that goes after establishments that violate the curfew.
The operation was live-streamed on the CCPO’s Facebook page, and one of the restobar owners was caught telling the police that he had talked with Parilla that it had been agreed during a meeting with City officials before the implementation of the new curfew that it would be the police’s duty to tell restobar customers to go home when the clock nears 12 a.m.
Parilla offered a different version. He said it was agreed that it is the restobar management’s responsibility to stop serving their customers ahead of the curfew.