COVID COVERED. Police Major Jacinto Mandal sharing the best practices of Bohol Police in their fight against COVID-19, during a briefing on ending local communist armed conflict in Carmen town last week. Police are asking community cooperation and participation in crime fighting now that the police force is also implementing quarantine measures and not just crime busting. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)

CORTES, Bohol, Sept. 6 (PIA) -- With practically too much area for them to keep an eye on, Bohol police may yet have a huge task to accomplish keeping crimes at bay while containing a pandemic that could potentially affect them, too.

Faced with this daunting task, it is, however, "just another day in a policeman's life," said Bohol Police Community Affairs and Development (PCAD) Unit head Police Major Jacinto Mandal during the Kapihan sa PIA to mark Crime Prevention Month in September.

The figures may be bad at all, but with the community helping the police by serving as their eyes and ears and immediately reporting any crime, police authorities are just there in the neighborhood, Mandal assured.

Mismatched as to police to population ratio, Mandal said they may be thinly spread out but they can still quickly respond to criminal activities as long as somebody who cares and takes responsibility calls the authorities.

"We may not be there right there and then, but we will be," he stressed even as he reinforces the need to get communities involved in crime busting.

With police to population ratio at 1:1500, police authorities here have banked on force multipliers to help them out and uproot criminal elements who are hiding in communities, confident that the police always have their hands full.

"We are still on Modified General Community Quarantine. Although we have relaxed our measures, we still have to properly manage our peace and order while continuing on our education to the communities, so we stop motorists on checkpoints to remind them of the face masks policy, and not to apprehend them but get close to them to earn their trust and their cooperation," he explained.

Now tapping non-government organizations and people's organizations including citizens groups, blue guards, local Bantay Bayan groups, Barangay Peace Action Teams or barangay tanods, stakeholders and other groups as force multipliers, Camp Dagohoy, Bohol Police camp believes the manpower shortfall may not be that huge after all.

"With our force multipliers, they can be critically fed with relevant information by the community and effectively, crimes can be solved in less time," he said.

Emphasizing the theme: "Komunidad Pangalagaan nang Pandemya at Krimen ay Maiwasan", the Camp Dagohoy PCAD chief stressed that even with these, as long as communities do not help in managing crimes, there is very little the police can do.

"If there is a crime that transpired in the streets, the police may be blamed for that, but if crimes happen in the homes with everyone in the family seeing it and nobody acts, how do you expect the police to quickly solve it?" he asked.

Now thinly spread because they too have to man the quarantine checkpoints and some personnel deployed in lockdowns, the police have come up with an ingenious way to make their presence known in the locked-down islands.

"Because we can not be visible at all times in a big island like Malingin in Bien Unido, we fly Saranggola ni PD, and when people look up, they will see the kite and get reminded that the police is always looking at them," Mandal said.

Saranggola ni PD is also flown in Guindacpan Island in Talibon, where a small detachment of police officers complement the barangay officials and the local police in ensuring the quarantine protocols are observed and that nobody gets in the islands.

Under the leadership of Police Director Police Col. Joselito Clarito, five of their staff officers met to implement more strengthened border control when Bohol's northern islands especially those facing Cebu have been suspected of allowing the entry of persons who may have brought in the virus and started the local transmission of the disease.

"We will continue to upgrade and enhance our border security plans," Mandal said even as Camp Dogoyoy operations chief Police Major Norman Nuez bared that the P10,000 reward for anyone who could report illegal entry to Bohol by locally stranded individuals and Overseas Filipino Workers remain without any takers.(rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)