COPS UNDER OBSERVATION: PNP-Region 6 has one PUI, 110 PUMs

Police officers mount a checkpoint at the boundary of Capiz and Iloilo. Cops are also exposed to the coronavirus disease 2019 as they help implement the enhanced community quarantine in Panay. (PRO-6 photo)

By Jennifer P. Rendon

One personnel of the Police Regional Office 6 (PRO-6) has been categorized as person under investigation (PUI) for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

The male uniformed personnel is assigned at the PRO-6 regional headquarters in Camp Martin Delgado, Iloilo City.

He was classified as PUI because he lives near the 61-year old female from Mandurriao district who tested positive for COVID-19.

A PUI is a person who has signs and symptoms, has travel history to infected areas or may have been exposed to positive cases.

Police Lieutenant Colonel Joem Malong, PRO-6 spokesperson, did not provide any more details, except that the police officer is now on home quarantine.

Meanwhile, there are 110 police personnel all over Western Visayas who are on the persons under monitoring (PUM) list.

“All of them are on quarantine,” Malong said.

Sixty-one officers are assigned to the PNP Regional Personnel Holding and Accounting Unit (RPHAU), 12 from PRO-6 regional headquarters; and 10 from Capiz Police Provincial Office (CPPO).

Other PUMs are from the Iloilo PPO with 7; Aklan PPO with 6; Iloilo City PO with 5; Guimaras PPO and the Regional Mobile Force Battalion with 3 each; and Antique PPO, Negros Occidental, and Bacolod City with one each.

PUMs are persons who have no signs and symptoms, have travel history to infected areas or were exposed to positive cases.

Malong said most of them have travelled to Manila, where scores of COVID-19 positive cases were reported.

As of March 26, PRO-6 deployed 3,520 personnel to help enforce community quarantine against COVID-19.

More than a third, or 38.66 percent, is in Iloilo province with 1,361.

Meanwhile, Negros Occidental PPO deployed 585; Capiz PPO, 492; RPHAU, 459; Iloilo City, 259; Antique PPO, 242; RFMB, 224; Aklan PPO, 216; Bacolod City, 78; and Guimaras PPO, 63.

The PNP national headquarters on Wednesday said two police officers tested positive for COVID-19.

One of the patients is a 32-year-old cop assigned in Metro Manila. The other is a 52-year-old assigned in Laguna.