Tuesday, October 17, 2006 Focus on security, not profits: mayor
THE recent bombings in Mindanao boosted Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña’s stand on the four-day holiday in December, prompting him to ask the exporters to give more weight to security than profits.
Osmeña said that even with 500 Marines and some 5,000 policemen that will be detailed here during the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) summit, terrorists will still attempt to wreak havoc here.
“I hope I’m wrong and that hopefully nothing happens during the event but there’s no Asean summit yet and they’re already bombing public places. The 500 Marines will not stop these people from trying,” he told reporters.
In a news conference yesterday, Osmeña reiterated his position on the need to have Metro Cebu residents go home to their provinces during the summit to make the peace and order situation more manageable.
Only 1%
President Arroyo has declared Dec. 11 to 14 a special non-working holiday in the entire province but Mandaue City Mayor Thadeo Ouano, some business and exporter groups opposed it.
“I understand several exporters are complaining about the four-day holiday but if you really think about it, four days are only one percent of 365 days, and exporters don’t have to pay 10 to 12 percent VAT. They’re more concerned about their businesses than security,” he said.
Much as he wants to keep the children in school during the summit, Osmeña said he is compelled to push that the President’s declaration stays “to offset the risk of what can happen during the very critical period.”
Organizers of the summit have announced that the Armed Forces of the Philippines is deploying a battalion from the Philippine Marine Corps to Cebu during the summit.
The announcement came days after the bombings in North Cotabato and Sultan Kudarat provinces that left scores of people dead and injured.
Job to prevent
Osmeña welcomed the deployment, saying the Marines can help in the checkpoints and augment the policemen that will be assigned to guard transformers, power and water lines and other vital installations.
“We can mobilize them and be ready for immediate assault in the even something happens… I guess when the shooting and firefight starts, that’s when they can come in but my job is to prevent the shooting,” he added. (LCR)
