Tanods to help secure Misa de Gallo

CEBU, Philippines - To assist police and traffic personnel in securing the crowd of mass attendees in Cebu City, over a thousand barangay tanods (village watchmen) will be assigned in churches at the start of the traditional Misa de Gallo.

Acting mayor Edgardo Labella ordered the deployment of the tanods during the nine-day dawn masses as augmentation personnel.

“(To serve as) multiplier effect, (we will be designating) barangay tanods especially in barangays with churches in their territorial jurisdictions,” he told a press conference yesterday.

The Cebu City Police Office, on the other hand, said it is all set since yesterday in the security preparations for the dawn masses, which starts today.

Senior Superintendent Marciano Batiancela Jr., CCPO acting director, said there are already designated personnel to secure the churchgoers in 34 churches around Cebu City during the dawn masses, which will end on December 24.

Yesterday morning, CCPO conducted a workshop with the police station commanders on the security preparations.

Batiancela said he directed his police commanders to coordinate with the different parish pastoral councils and for them to personally supervise the implementation of security measures in their respective area of responsibility.

He said that when the masses starting at 4 a.m., policemen were already instructed to be at their areas of assignment at 3 a.m.

Batiancila also identified the churches that need special attention because of their congregations’ relatively bigger sizes compared to other parishes. These are the Basilica del Sto. Niño; Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral; and the parishes of Sto. Rosario, Sacred Heart, Lourdes, Redemptorist, Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, St. Joseph, St. Therese, and Sto. Tomas de Villanueva.

He said they were thankful to the Regional Public Safety Battalion-7 that sent 100 police personnel in addition to his force.

Meanwhile, Chief Inspector David Señor, CCPO Police Community Relations Branch chief, reminded the public to be vigilant when going to churches and if possible to not leave their houses without anyone at home.

“Dili mo maghurot og biya sa balay, dapat naay mahibilin or magpuli-puli kay kanang orasa, ting-siaw pud na sa mga kawatan,” he said.

He also advised the faithful not to bring any jewelry or gadgets when attending dawn masses as these could attract criminals who are just waiting for the opportunity to pounce on churchgoers.

Labella agreed, and said the people should be equally conscious of security. “For the churchgoers, (they should) be careful. Dili unta sila mag sul-ob og alahas and be very modest by not wearing short pants,” he said.

As to the tanods, Labella said barangays that don’t have churches within their jurisdictions would have their tanods assigned to neighboring places to augment colleagues there.

He said each policemen assigned to secure the public cannot attend to all the people all the time and lawless elements would take advantage of the huge crowd.

The acting mayor said the tanods who would be deployed are those who are well-trained in the basic operational procedures on scenarios related to crime.

“We already trained them…. These tanods have been trained about the warrant of arrest; when to arrest and the preservation of the crime scene; what to do when there is a crime committed in their vicinity,” he said.

He, too, was concerned about criminals entering homes whose owners were attending dawn masses, and revealed that he already told Batiancela that his men should also be doing patrols “all over the city.”

As to the traffic concerns, Labella said the Cebu City Transportation Office  has assured that it would deploy 60 traffic personnel with parking aides to control the flow of vehicles traversing streets near churches while parking aides would also be around to assist private motorists looking for the designated parking slots. — (FREEMAN)