Mayor Edgar Labella here has commended the Philippine National Police (PNP) for the peaceful celebration of Sinulog 2020.
“One thing that made me happy is the contribution of the police in securing the Sinulog parade routes last Sunday and the solemn procession last Saturday. We have a peaceful Sinulog 2020 because of the police,” Labella said in a radio interview.
He said Col. Engelbert Soriano, the officer-in-charge of the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) and Brig. Gen. Valeriano de Leon, regional director of the Police Regional Office (PRO) in Central Visayas, spent their nights at the conference room of his office in Cebu City Hall to make real-time situation assessments.
He said the police officials provided immediate interventions to safety and security issues that cropped up after careful evaluation with Cebu City Council chairman for Peace and Order Philip Zafra.
“All the police officers present (at the conference room) were able to assess what happened during the day to fill the gaps and to implement measures on the following day,” he said.
Apart from the CCPO personnel, police forces from Mandaue City, Lapu-Lapu City, Bohol province, and different municipalities under the Cebu Provincial Police Office also helped secure this city for the celebration.
Reservists from the Army, Navy and Air Force, Reserve Officer Training Corps cadets and students of the Civic Welfare Training Service likewise assisted in crowd control during the solemn foot procession on Jan. 18 and in the parade route on January 19.
Meanwhile, Labella said he will reward around 600 garbage collectors, street cleaners and volunteers for working overnight to clean the city roads of tons of garbage and buntings after the celebration.
“I had specific instructions to Atty. Jingo Dacua, the new head of the Department of Public Services (DPS) and Atty. Floro Casas that I will be back at 5:30 before the sun rises and I would like to see the entire stretch of the Sinulog route clear and clean of garbage,” he said.
Labella said he was surprised to see the roads already clean when he surveyed the city center at 5 a.m. on Monday.
Dacua said around 130 tons of garbage were collected along the Sinulog route. This was lower than the 210 tons of garbage collected in 2019 and 219 tons in 2018. (PNA)
