FOLLOWING a recorded spike in COVID-19 cases among uniformed personnel in the city, Baguio Mayor Benjamin Magalong has put a stopper on their training in the city.
Magalong, in a briefing on Tuesday, said that the city has noted violations of minimum health standards and a surge in COVID-19 incidence among both the city’s Philippine National Police (PNP) presence, and the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) in the city.
Magalong, in a bid to arrest the spread of COVID-19 among the uniformed personnel, has called on PNP chief Gen. Guillermo Eleazar and BFP Chief Director Jose Embang Jr., asking both to put a halt to ongoing training activities by both organizations.
Under the request, Eleazar has agreed to temporarily suspend the PNP’s leadership training program for noncommissioned officers (NCOs) in the Cordillera Administrative Region Training Center (CARTC) at Teachers’ Camp, as well as training at the center’s annex at Mt. Santo Tomas.
Embang has also agreed to temporarily stop BFP training in the city after a training facility recorded a clustering of cases among trainees.
During the last week of June, some 104 police trainees and officers in the CARTC tested positive for COVID-19, forcing a quarantine of all 197 NCOs that were set to graduate from the leadership program.
Meanwhile, in the period between the end of June and July 11, another 26 NCOs contracted the disease at the CARTC annex in Mt. Santo Tomas, prompting the temporary halt of training activities for the PNP.
Both Eleazar and Embang have committed to investigate the reported breach of protocols that has led to the incidence of COVID-19 among their trainees, and have assured compliance with said protocols moving forward.
