Police secure the opening salvo parade of the Sinulog 2017 celebrations. (CDN PHOTO/Junjie Mendoza
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With the Muslim community committing to work together with the law enforcement agencies in Central Visayas to ensure the security of the Sinulog celebrations, Senior Supt. Rey Lyndon Lawas, deputy director of the Police Regional Office (PRO-7), is expecting a smooth and steady Sinulog celebration.
Lawas gave this assurance after Mufti of Cebu and Voice of Islam president Najeeb Rasul agreed to work with them in securing the Sinulog.
Rasul reached out to his fellow Muslim brothers not to stage anything catastrophic come Sinulog time since their religion taught them to respect other religions.
“For a society to become peaceful, to become united, we need to have tolerance. Kami, ang amo participation would be is that we have to ensure to be peaceful. We cannot allow our own people that we have to admit especially those people coming from the south. Nanawagan mi sa among igsoon sa Mindanao, nga dili ipaanhi ang mga spillover. Cebu City is my city, and I don’t allow them to come here,” Rasul said.
Lawas warned everyone who has bad motives during Sinulog not to come here since the Cebuanos are peaceful.
“Whoever has motives, I advise them not to come over since the Cebuanos are united as one,” Lawas said in Filipino.
The police also assured that there’s nothing to be alarmed of, but Lawas advised everybody to be extra vigilant since the safety of everyone is not only the job of the security officials but also the people’s concern.
“And anything that is suspicious whether butang man o tawo, ato dayon i-report sa pinakaduol nga police aron maaksyonan approriately,” Lawas added.
Lawas also encouraged everyone not to bring backpacks to prevent inconvenience or hassle since it will be inspected thoroughly but rather use transparent materials or bags.
The police also increased their number of force multipliers for Sinulog from 6,000 to 8,000 as they added reinforcements from the different agencies of the government specifically from the Air Force of the Philippines and Philippine National Police./USJ-R Intern John Carlo Villaruel