PIA Press Release
Tuesday, January 03, 2012 Cebu City Police sets security measures for upcoming Sinulog Festivalby Amor Saludar CEBU CITY Jan 03 (PIA) -- Security preparations for the upcoming Sinulog Festival are now being drafted by the police here as Cebu celebrates the Sinulog Festival on January 15. The Sinulog Grand Mardi Gras in Cebu City on Sunday is expected to attract hundreds of thousands of tourists and local residents who will witness the grand parade along the city’s major routes. In a recent meeting with Police Regional Office-7 director C/Supt. Marcelo Garbo, Cebu City Police Office Director S/ Supt. Melvin Ramon Buenafe bared his plan to utilize more than 3,000 police personnel that will be scattered throughout the parade routes as well as other Sinulog-related activities prior to the Mardi Gras. Buenafe said that the more than 1,000 police personnel in the city will be augmented by 2,000 police neophytes from the Regional Public Safety Battalion (RPSB) to ensure peace and order amid the hundreds of thousands of crowd that will flock to the streets. Over 5,000 criminology students from the different universities in Cebu will also be deployed to assist the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Central Command for crowd control. Part of the security measures will be the creation of a crisis committee tasked to respond to major alarms and incidents during Sinulog-related events particularly during the actual celebration of the Sinulog grand parade. It is expected that when the Police Coordinating and Advisory Council (PCAC) would release the resolution on the total gun ban, this will be implemented in Cebu City starting January 5 until January 25 this year. Buenafe assured the public that they will intensify the’ Oplan Boga, Oplan Sita’ to strengthen the enforcement of the gun ban implementation so that people illegally carrying firearms will be apprehended. (FCR/AS/PIA-CEBU) | 
