THE commemoration of All Saints’ Day on Tuesday, November 1, 2022, in Cebu City and Cebu Province was peaceful and orderly.
Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) Director Colonel Ireneo Dalogdog, who visited big cemeteries like Pardo, Calamba and Carreta past 2 p.m., said no crimes were reported.
That morning, they only recorded around 5,000 visitors to the city’s 21 cemeteries but the number started to go up in the afternoon, he said.
“The situation was calm but we noticed that the cemeteries became overcrowded. There were no reports of petty theft and the like, though,” he said in Cebuano.
It was a similar scene in Cebu Province.
Cebu Police Provincial Office Director Colonel Rommel Ochave said that not one petty crime was reported, which meant people followed the rules implemented by the government.
They did confiscate some contraband like knives but people were going to use these to clean tombstones, he said.
“We have no recorded crime incident in our cemeteries. All concerned agencies and the police are there to secure visitors. As for the people, they’re very cooperating,” he said in a mix of Tagalog and English.
Meanwhile, Colonel Dalogdog said force multipliers who guarded the cemeteries helped a lot in maintaining peace.
He thanked soldiers from the Armed Forces of the Philippines, barangay tanods, members of Task Force Kasaligan and organizations such as the Social Action Volunteer Emergency Radio Communication for their assistance.
More than 500 police officers working two shifts were deployed in the cemeteries plus members of the Prevention Restoration Order Beautification and Enhancement and the Cebu Environmental Sanitation and Enforcement Team (Ceset). Cebu City Transportation Office enforcers directed traffic outside.
In the Carreta Cemetery, no one threw garbage indiscriminately or spat or smoked in public.
Dalogdog said that maybe they did not want to pay the hefty fine if they got caught: P1,000 for spitting and indiscriminate throwing of garbage and P2,000 for smoking inside the cemetery.
There were incidents that required the help of the medical team, but these were minor and the patients were quickly taken to the waiting ambulance and given first aid. (AYB/PJB)