Tuesday, October 31, 2006 Cebu on full alert for All Souls’ Day
POLICE will enforce stricter security measures for the All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day this week.
Starting midnight, Cebu City will be placed on heightened alert status and a liquor ban will be in effect in all the 14 public and private cemeteries in the city.
The city has been under alert status since Friday.
An augmentation force from the Central Command, the Regional Mobile Group and policemen who are undergoing field training will also be in place.
The estimated 300 members of the Barangay Intelligence Network, barangay tanods, and civilian volunteer groups are also expected to help the police.
The Cebu City Traffic Operations and Management announced that a 50-meters radius from cemeteries will be designated no-parking zones, with the Cebu Memorial Park (CemPark) in Barangay Banilad as exemption.
Asean preparations
Vice Mayor Michael Rama said this year’s strict measures are related to the preparations for the Asean summit this December.
Rama said he will request Cebu City councilors and other city officials to visit the cemeteries to help ensure peace.
The Cebu Provincial Police Office (CPPO) is busy too.
It has sent a bomb disposal unit, a K-9 unit and members of the special reaction unit (SRU) to the South Bus Terminal, which is expected to be packed with passengers heading home for the towns.
Aside from the South Bus Terminal, two more teams of the SRU will patrol the north and southern parts of the province. Five patrol cars will be on standby in the five biggest cemeteries under their jurisdiction.
Chief Insp. Elmer Lim, CPPO’s operations chief, said these cemeteries are in the cities of Talisay, Danao and Toledo and the towns of Bogo and Carcar.
Each cemetery will have an ambulance on standby and a police assistance center.
Police are also preparing for the usual problems of heavy traffic, lost children and petty criminals.
Oplan Kalag-kalag starts today and ends on Thursday.
Lim said the military has already identified “green areas” where they will constantly be conducting internal security operations from now until the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit.
All police chiefs were ordered to coordinate with their local government units and submit implementation plans with sketches of areas where policemen will be fielded. They will also coordinate with barangay tanods, members of the barangay intelligence network and traffic enforcers.
In Mandaue City, policemen will be assigned to the police assistance centers in the different cemeteries in the city while the Mobile Patrol Unit will be on call for emergencies.
SPO4 Julio Caputolan Jr. of the Mandaue City Police Office said drinking and gambling are not allowed in the cemeteries.
Banned
Loud music, firearms and bladed instruments will also be banned.
Caputolan said policemen and barangay tanods will conduct regular inspections inside the cemeteries.
Policemen will be deployed to the three cemeteries in Barangay Guizo and the other public cemeteries in Barangays Pagsabungan and Jagobiao.
They will also be sent to the private cemeteries in Barangays Banilad and Canduman.
Police stations that do not have cemeteries in their areas will help the other stations.
The Subangdaku police station, which doesn’t have a cemetery under its watch, will be in charge of securing the nearby North Bus Terminal.
As roads around cemeteries will be closed, policemen will help man the traffic.
In Cebu City, more policemen will be deployed to police stations whose areas of responsibilities included the cemeteries.
Of the seven police stations, the Waterfront Police Station has the most number of cemeteries under its area: Ludo, Carreta, the Chinese and Doña Pepang.
Other cemeteries in Cebu City are Lorega-San Miguel, Queen City Garden, Cebu Memorial Park (CemPark), Calamba, Pardo, Talamban, Golden Haven Memorial Park, Veteran’s Cemetery and Labangon.
Supt. Pablo Labra II, chief of the Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Bureau (CIIB) and ground commander in the city’s north district, said that apart from the regular frisking of visitors and inspections of packages at the cemeteries’ entrance, there will be checkpoints for vehicles entering the CemPark in Banilad.
Detention
Labra said CemPark, a private cemetery, is the only one in the city where vehicles are allowed inside.
Drunken people are also discouraged from going inside the cemeteries. Kaohsiung buses will serve as temporary detentions.
Labra advised the public to leave their valuables at home. (JST/MEA/LCR/AAG)
