Cebu, being the queen city of the south, can’t help but attract all sorts of people from all walks of life.
There are those who come here for the gastronomic experience. The more devout come to venerate the Child Jesus. I doubt many visit to see historical sites because, let’s face, there aren’t that many outside the holy trinity of the Basilica del Sto. Niño, Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral and the Fort San Pedro. Okay there are two “preserved” houses in the Parian district but other than that… you know what I mean.
So what else? Oh yeah, many flock here for the shopping too. For the most part, whatever is available in Metro Manila can also be found here. Maybe things can be a little bit more expensive, but visitors, especially those coming from neighboring islands and Mindanao, basically save on accommodation and fare. And let’s not forget the language advantage.
I know not everyone in Mindanao and Visayas speak Cebuano or Bisaya as a first language, but a big chunk does and when they do arrive they can adjust easily.
I can go on and on and talk about the many other nice things that can be said about Cebu City but I can’t. Don’t get me wrong, Cebu City is a decent enough place to live in but it’s not exactly paradise.
As they say, there are always two sides of a coin.
The same can be said for the type of visitors who wash up on our shores.
Don’t you ever wonder why the police warn the public to be on the lookout for criminal elements from outside the island at the start of the “Ber” months?
I don’t but only because I have been working in the media industry for over two decades and every year, like clockwork, we get an advisory from the Cebu City Police Office or the Police Regional Office 7 about their nefarious activities.
So when news broke that two jewelry stores in the downtown area were robbed in broad daylight last Aug. 8 I looked at the calendar and figured, hmm, September is less than three weeks away… close enough.
And when police later announced that the perpetrators happen to be members of the Mindanao-based Parojinog robbery group, I felt like saying, “Well, there you go.”
If the name sounds familiar it’s because a Parojinog, the then mayor of Ozamiz City, was accused of being involved in the illegal drug trade by former President Rodrigo Duterte back in 2016. He and 14 others, including his wife and brother and sister, were killed when police raided his residence and other properties in 2017.
In 2019, an intelligence report linked some politicians and their supporters in one of the tri-cities in Metro Cebu as protectors of the crime syndicate. According to the same report, some members of the robbery group fled to Cebu and settled in the metro after the fatal attack, “renting houses and using them as warehouses to store shabu.”
The group has been reported to be involved in various bank robberies, illegal drug trade and murder incidents across the country over the past several years.
Another Mindanao politico linked to the Parojinog drug group met a gruesome fate here in Cebu.
Remember Clarin, Misamis Occidental Mayor David Navarro? He would have stayed under the radar while visiting Cebu had he not punched a masseur on the night of Oct. 24, 2019. He was angry because the spa couldn’t provide him with a female massage therapist.
Less than a week before, on the night of Oct. 19, four men tried to rob a mall in Mandaue City. The suspects reportedly belonged to the Alferez Robbery Group in Ozamiz City. Police said their leader, Dante Navarro, and the mayor were one and the same person.
Then on the afternoon of Oct. 25, Navarro was killed on his way to the fiscal’s office. It was a brutal ending. One of the gunmen grabbed him by the bulletproof vest when he fell to the ground and shot him pointblank in the head.
I truly hope things don’t get out of hand this time around.
I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I am actually looking forward to Jose Mari Chan coming out of his hibernation.