Mixed reactions from Cebuanos on ‘zero signal’

Regional Police Office director Chief Supt. Noli Taliño tells reporters that fire trucks, ambulances, uniformed policemen, undercover agents and radio communicators will be deployed in strategic areas across Cebu City to secure all fiesta events today and tomorrow. (CDN PHOTO/TONEE DESPOJO)

MIXED reactions from the Cebuano community met the announcement of the Philippine National Police (PNP) that the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) had approved their request to shut down all cell sites surrounding the Basilica Minore del Santo Niño and along the procession and parade routes today and tomorrow, Sunday, as an added security measure.

Following PNP’s announcement, top telephone companies, Globe and Smart sent advisories to their subscribers on Thursday.
“As part of security measures during the Sinulog Festival, our signal will be blocked on Jan 14 and 15 in Cebu City, Talisay, Lapu-Lapu and Mandaue, and in Consolacion, Cordova, Liloan and Minglanilla. Call, text and mobile data will be unavailable on these dates. This is in compliance with the directive of the National Telecommunications Commission. We’ll continue to send updates on the unblocking of signal. Please follow @Talk2GLOBE on Twitter,” read the text blast from Globe.

Meanwhile, Smart’s public advisory sent to its subscribers said that in the interest of public safety and security and upon instructions from the NTC and PNP, the phone network would be “temporarily shutting down mobile services of Smart, TNT and Sun in Cebu City” specifically in areas along the routes of the fluvial and solemn processions today, January 14 and the Sinulog Festival Grand Parade on Sunday, January 15.

Smart mobile phone services will resume as soon as “we are given the go-signal by the authorities,” said the advisory while it also explained why some places that are far from the shutdown areas are also affected by the shutdown.

“To suspend service in defined areas, we switch off cell sites serving these places. However, the signal of some cell sites in areas farther away may, for various technical reasons, also reach the shutdown zone. For example, some cell sites in higher elevations. We are thus compelled to shut down these cell sites as well,” Smart said.

Inconvenience

Mandaue Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) past president Philip Tan lamented that the shutdown will inconvenience business establishments in Metro Cebu; however, they will just have to adjust to it for the safety of the general public.

“This is the first time. It would surely inconvenience most of us, a learning curve that we may have to adjust in the future Sinulog celebrations. Let’s pray for the enlightenment of those that may have caused this situation,” Tan said through a text message to Cebu Daily News.

For 53-year-old Jocelyn Calunod of Barangay Pajac, Lapu-Lapu City, the best way to go about the absence of digital communication during the festivity would be to have a fixed meet-up point with her three children in case they get lost in the rowdy Sinulog crowd.

“It’s fine by me. Since they had advised us ahead of time,” Calunod said in Cebuano.

Neil Jed Castro, 24, a Cebuano blogger, however, worries about having “zero signal” in cases of emergency.

“The fact that it will be really hard for people to communicate most especially if there will be an emergency,” Castro said, referring to the swiftness of the communication that is needed for fire alarms and medical emergency response.

Castro believes that the best way to battle threats of terrorism would be to heighten security through more police visibility and prayers of course, he said.

For Dan Henly Cuizon, 21, from Cordova town, having no mobile phone signal would be very hard for millennials.

“What is hard about it is you can’t connect to your friends. We can’t contact them and as we all know, social media is all the means of communication for millennials,” said Cuizon, though he also sees the advantage of shutting down the signal due to government fears arising from a bomb explosion at the Hilongos, Leyte, town fiesta last December.

An improvised bomb, believed to be triggered by a cellular phone, caused the Hilongos explosion which injured at least 34 people.

“Mobile phone signal is always poor during Sinulog days so it’s almost as good as shutting it down,” said 36-year-old social media specialist Marvin Llanos Maning.

“This is for us Cebuanos, especially for those who are going to celebrate the feast or planning to go to worth it parties,” 19-year-old Jenny Lou Birondo said.

But Diana Javellana, 20, of Barangay Inayawan, is choosing to stay home on Sunday just like many of her friends.

“It is right to shut down the signal for us to be safe, but at the same time, people should not be too confident since there are a lot of ways to create bombs even without communication signals,” she said as she plans to watch the Sinulog activities unfold through TV live coverage on Sunday./with reports from Vanisa Soriano