Government decisions should not be done on a whim. Decisions like transferring the venue of the Sinulog Grand Parade to the South Road Properties or SRP, which was made by the previous Cebu City administration, should have been a well-studied one. The Sinulog is the island’s biggest cultural event that is tied to the Philippine’s grandest religious observance so its venue has to be well-selected.
Cebu City Mayor Raymond Alvin Garcia decided this year to bring the Sinulog back to the heart of the city, with the Cebu City Sports Center (CCSC) as site of the culmination event: the final judging of the dances. The SRP is destined to be where the Sinulog will be held in the future but for now the venue has limitations that need to be surmounted and only its further evolution can do that.
Crowd control has always been the problem of every Sinulog Grand Parades, past or present. But after years of holding the event, law enforcers can already anticipate where hooliganism is most likely to erupt in the parade route. They also know the contingents or floats that are most likely the targets of hooligans or are so volatile that they themselves become sources of violence.
But the problem should not deter the City, the Sinulog Foundation and law enforcers from holding the event. If the religious at the Basilica have never been deterred from holding the religious activities despite crowd control problems, why would the Cebu City Government and the Sinulog Foundation be deterred?
As for the SRP, the Sinulog Foundation should start preparing the venue for the Sinulog Grand Parade. More establishments are rising there, true, but these are not enough for now. People can stay in some malls but they will not be where the action is. Then there’s the problem of public transport. Even in ordinary days, one can get stranded there unlike in uptown and downtown Cebu City where public transport is not that big of a problem.
I understand that a facility akin to the CCSC will soon be a feature of the SRP. If that happens, holding the culminating activity of the Sinulog would no longer be a problem. Once the public gets the hang of the bigger crowd-holding venue, holding the Sinulog at the SRP will become a better reality by then than holding such an event there now.
Rushing the transfer of venues would be like rushing the so-called modernization of the Cebu City Medical Center or CCMC, which has not been completed until now. Preparing a venue for a big tourist come-on like the Sinulog Grand Parade should not be rushed. It should be well-planned, meaning well thought-of. Because there are many factors to be considered there like the crowd, the economy, local practices, religious tradition and finally, the matter of law enforcement. That is why deciding that can’t be done on a whim or chaos will ensue.
That, I should say, should also be how the decision-making process as far as every matter related to governance is concerned, should be done.