CEBU, Philippines - Police Regional Office -7 officer-in-charge Sr. Supt Orlando Ualat said the opening of classes yesterday was generally peaceful despite the huge number of students and the "inadequate" number of policemen deployed.
Ualat did his rounds in some of the schools with the highest population in Cebu City yesterday.
He said he was surprised to see the huge number of students that flocked to the schools today, he also said the number of police officers deployed in the schools were inadequate.
Only two police officers were deployed in every school. He plans to address this by deploying more augmentation troops from the regional headquarters to address the shortage of ground personnel.
During his rounds he also noticed that City Central School lacked emergency exits and told the Bureau of Fire Protection-7 about his observation for them to take action.
This year the Cebu City police decided to take a more active role during school opening. The San Nicolas Police Station "posted" a police mascot at the Gothong National High School to welcome the students during the first day of classes, while the Fuente Police Station headed by its station commander Chief Inspector Wildemar Tiu distributed flyers to the parents who were sending their kids to school.
The flyers contained information on what to do during the opening of classes.
Cebu City Police Office director Senior Superintendent Noli Romana also conducted his rounds among the schools and said everything went as planned and the opening of classes was smooth sailing.
Heavy traffic
In the province, class opening was also peaceful except for some road congestion in the Metro Cebu south and north areas.
Police area supervisors admitted that national roads were congested and traffic slowed to a crawl from 7 a.m. to 8 a.m., during what is normally considered rush hour.
Superintendent Renato Malazarte, southern Cebu area supervisor, said that after traffic congestion improved everything went back to normal.
"Gisulod nako ang mga areas unya normal na man diri sa Naga City and Minglanilla nga known nga huot gyud," Malazarte said, adding that they also prepared an alternative route just in case there is a need to ease the traffic. The route was the road in Barangay Calajo-an, Minglanilla, that led to Barangay Tungkop.
Superintendent Anthony Bagarinao, northern Cebu area supervisor, also said that Consolacion, Liloan, Compostela, and Danao City also had traffic congestion but it was immediately managed by deployed policemen.
"Hinay gyud ang dagan sa trapiko unya huot pero nasulbad ra dayon," Bagarinao said.
There were no untoward incidents in relation to the opening of classes. (FREEMAN)