By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga

Bacolod City Police Office (BCPO) has ordered Thursday evening the closure for 24 hours of at least 16 commercial establishments in the city for serving alcoholic beverages.

Police Major Sherlock Gabana, head of the Emergency Operations Center contact tracing team, said they have made a surprise inspection of at least 30 commercial establishments in the city’s barangays 7, 40 and Villamonte, and 16 of them were caught in the act of serving alcohol to customers.

Some of the establishments were also noted to have no business permits.

They will be allowed to reopen again once the time expires, although they are prohibited from serving alcoholic drinks, Gabana added.

Those who will be caught for the second time will be referred to the Bacolod City Legal Office.

Gabana pointed out, under the executive order issued by Bacolod City Mayor Evelio Leonardia, establishments may only be allowed to serve alcoholic beverages from 12:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. only.

The consumption of alcoholic beverages is also limited inside residences only, and is currently banned in public.

For the meantime, Gabana said those they caught drinking in public had their names taken and were allowed to go home afterwards./DGB, WDJ