Peaceful Holy Week in Cebu City

CEBU, Philippines — Other than the arrest of 83 individuals for illegal gambling, the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) reported no untoward incidents during the observance of the Holy Week.

Police Lt. Col. Ryan Devaras, deputy city director for administration, said the observance of the Holy Week in the city was relatively peaceful.

“For the past four (4) days sa Lenten Season celebration nato, we are proud to say that Cebu City was generally peaceful,” Devaras told reporters.

Devaras said the whole security preparations had been successfully executed leading to the arrest of several individuals violating the health protocols.

At least 19 individuals were arrested for illegal cockfighting commonly known as tigbakay while several others were caught betting on illegal cards game.

Devaras said they have also successfully prevented people from holding picnics at the South Road Properties to celebrate Easter Sunday. He said those who tried to swim at the SRP were asked to go home since it is prohibited under the present modified general community quarantine status of the city.

“We have reports along SRP, kanang bay walk diha na there were attempts na maligo and then bawal mana karon... so we deploy our police personnel to warn them that it’s not allowed nga maligo’g dagat,” Devaras said.

He said there were no arrests made since the people were also cooperative. The security cluster in charge of monitoring the Carbon Market was also successful in preventing the influx of crowd buying “binignit” ingredients during the Holy Week.

“Unlike last year, karon na control gyud nato ang crowd. We prepared for this, we deployed more police officers and more augmentation personnel to secure the area,” Devaras said. — FPL (FREEMAN)