EDITORIAL - A Sinulog problem that cannot be ignored

Any move to ban alcohol-laced parties during the Sinulog should not stop with parties only along the parade route. Parties along the parade route are in fact the least of the worries of those who want to avoid getting into trouble with inebriated and rowdy revelers. The Sinulog parade route is the most heavily secured of all city streets during that day. It will be teeming with law enforcers.

It is the sidestreets which pose the greatest problem for those who simply want to go about their businesses without having to be harassed and abused by zonked out merry-makers. The sidestreets, of which there are many in this metropolis, host many of the real drinking binges that happen during and after the Sinulog. They are also where the law enforcers are at their most scarce.

Yet it is to these sidestreets that people who simply want to go about their businesses repair to. These streets are where they need to pass through if they are to avoid getting caught up in the chaos and congestion of the main parade route. People who need to go to work on Sinulog day -- doctors, nurses, midwives, service sector employees, etc -- or those who simply need to go home or get from one point of the city to another need to be able to use these sidestreets freely.

Little do these people know that once they make the mistake of getting into any of these sidestreets, they are walking into a virtual trap that very possibly could cost them their lives, or at least getting inflicted with bodily harm by revelers who, because of alcohol and drugs, think everybody out on the streets are out for a good time.

Revelers hijack everyone who pass innocently through these streets, forcing them to drink and to join the party, harassing and threatening those who politely and fearfully refuse. To be sure, no one has been killed yet as a result. But does the city have to wait until there is one? The absence of fatalities aside, the city cannot ignore the many other incidents that just fell short of being fatal.

Many have been the incidents of damage to property, of cars getting dented or have their windshields broken as a result of revelers jumping up on them to dance and otherwise misbehave in an unrestrained display of pack mentality fueled by alcohol and drugs. And at whose expense are the injuries to persons, damage to property, and psychological trauma suffered by innocent passersby?

It is not only the direct victims who suffer. Indirectly it will be the reputation of the city. Today there may still be no fatalities recorded ever. But unless the authorities take steps to rein in the public celebrations, the city is looking at a beast that is about to break free to unleash its fury. Our biggest tourism draw can also be its own deadliest enemy. If the city must act on the problem -- and it is a problem -- it must act now. This year. This Sinulog.