Thursday, January 10, 2008 Cardinal Vidal not comfortable with letting inmates join Sinulog dance
CEBU Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal is not comfortable with having any inmates join the Sinulog parade on Jan. 20.
The Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center (CPDRC) earlier requested that its inmates be allowed to join the festivities and perform the dance that made them an Internet phenomenon.
After CPDRC’s request, inmates of the Cebu City jail also expressed interest in dancing during the event.
But Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña and the Sinulog Foundation Inc. board of trustees have already decided not to allow inmates to dance. Osmeña said he did not want to take unnecessary risks in letting inmates join the event.
“Even if there will only be one dancing inmate, who is sure that the security can contain him with such a crowd?” Cardinal Vidal told reporters yesterday.
Thousands of devotees and local and international tourists flock to join religious activities and the revelry during the feast of Señor Sto. Niño every third Sunday of January.
Vidal said that while “dancing is part or a form of the inmates’ rehabilitation, let us not take risks with such a huge crowd, to avoid untoward incidents.”
“I am not against inmates dancing in the Sinulog. It’s not that I don’t have any sense of confidence in them. But can we contain them the way the four walls of the jail can?” the prelate said.
The Cebu City Police Office admitted they would have to double the number of police personnel and augmentation forces if the CPDRC inmates will be allowed to dance.
“The Sinulog is organized. It’s already there. Let us celebrate it religiously, not out of material concerns, as Señor Sto. Niño would want us to do,” Cardinal Vidal said. (NRC)
