THE Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) has resumed the implementation of Oplan Bulabog to address the problem of minors who loiter in the streets late at night and into the wee hours of the morning.
It stopped conducting the operation after the City Government eased movement restrictions and lifted the curfew on adults when the number of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) cases dropped earlier this year.
According to Lt. Col. Wilbert Parilla, CCPO deputy director for administration, Oplan Bulabog will focus on rescuing minors who are still out on the streets past midnight.
The revival of Oplan Bulabog came after 16-year-old Jerome Rivera Estan, a Grade 10 scholar from Barangay Pahina Central, was robbed and stabbed to death by a group of minors in Barangay Bulacao on Saturday, August 6, 2022.
At 11 p.m. on that fateful night, Estan, the youngest of seven children, sought permission from his mother to go to Bulacao to see a classmate. His mother refused, but Estan went anyway.
During the recent Oplan Bulabog simultaneously conducted by all police stations in the city, police rescued 34 minors, who were later turned over to the City Social Welfare and Services.
After the minors were processed, they were brought to their respective barangays. Parents who picked them up were told to make sure they were at home by midnight.
The curfew on minors starts at midnight and lasts until 4 a.m.
Parilla also ordered barangay police to strictly enforce the curfew with the help of barangay tanods.
He said they will need the assistance of barangays because police cannot do it alone. He said local officials can conduct patrols in the barangays’ interiors.
Earlier curfew
Meanwhile, Parilla said he will meet with Vice Mayor Raymond Alvin Garcia to discuss the curfew ordinance that the City Council approved and the late mayor Edgardo Labella signed in 2020, which set the curfew on minors at 10 p.m.
However, the time was moved to midnight until 4 a.m. when Labella’s successor, Mayor Michael Rama, issued an executive order to launch Oplan Kagawasan last February.
The police official said he is in favor of setting the curfew on minors at 10 p.m.
He considers midnight too late, saying it will only give minors more time to commit crimes. Also, if the curfew reverts to 10 p.m., there is less chance of minors becoming victims of crime, he said.
“As of now, a midnight curfew for minors is too late. Many people are still up and about during that time, considering the curfew on adults has been lifted. It’s also better if the police and the barangays conduct their patrols early to ensure there are no more minors loitering in the streets late at night,” Parilla said in Cebuano.
Parilla said Oplan Bulabog will also rescue minors who live on the streets and skywalks and turn them over to the City Government.
Senseless killing
On Wednesday, Councilor Rey Gealon submitted a resolution condemning the senseless killing of scholar Estan and calling on the Cebu City Police Office to immediately resolve his case, as well as to beef up security measures for peace and order and the protection of residents.
Based on the autopsy conducted by Lt. Col. Ian Paulo Vertucio of the Philippine National Police Crime Laboratory, Estan was stabbed twice in the chest.
One of the five suspects pointed to two siblings who are minors as the ones who assaulted the victim.
Chubby, also a minor, told police that a 22-year-old resident of Sitio Ciwak, Barangay Bulacao, Cebu City, served as the brothers’ backup during the robbery.
Chubby said the younger brother John held the victim’s hand to grab his cellphone, and that when Estan fought back, the older brother Peter stabbed the victim in the chest twice. (AYB / PJB, CTL)