LILOAN Mayor Christina Frasco has ordered her town’s police force to file criminal cases against individuals who reportedly held surfing and skimboarding activities in her town at the height of Typhoon Odette (Rai) on Thursday, Dec. 16, 2021.
In a statement posted on Liloan’s Facebook page hours before the typhoon made landfall in Cebu, Frasco said she initially issued a cease and desist order on those holding surfing and skimboarding activities in Barangay Poblacion in the northern Cebu town.
Frasco did so after seeing pictures of young people reportedly skimboarding and surfing in Poblacion just a few hours before Odette made herself known.
The cease and desist order was related to a directive she issued on Dec. 13 prohibiting activities in Liloan’s coastal barangays in anticipation of Odette’s arrival.
But those who participated in the surfing and skimboarding activities still continued to do so even though they were already warned by municipal officials.
“Preliminary investigation indicates that the said persons initially complied but then a while later, they resumed their surfing and skimboarding activities and this time around, REFUSED, DISOBEYED, AND RESISTED the repeated admonishment of the Emergency Response Team,” Frasco added.
Due to this, Frasco ordered her town’s police force to charge those who organized and participated in the activity for resistance and disobedience to persons in authority.
“In the midst of the ongoing typhoon, individuals who senselessly engage in activities that risk their own lives needlessly exhaust government resources. Stunts like these veer attention away from the real and serious risk posed by the typhoon, and make a mockery of the sacrifices made by our Emergency and Rescue Frontliners who risk life and limb to protect the general population,” Frasco added. (JKV, PR)