Crowd at Sinulog (CDN PHOTO/IZOBELLE PULGO).
“Maximum tolerance.”
This is what Senior Insp. Porferio Gabuya, sector head of the area covering Escario and J. Osmeña Streets up to the National Bookstore along General Maxilom Ave., told Cebu Daily News when asked how their crowd control in the area were coming along.
Gabuya said they exercised maximum tolerance in handling the rowdy crowd that started to fill the streets near Baseline Center.
He said that the area is a notorious Sinulog street party junction where people, most of them young adults, can be seen moving along the Sinulog crowd, chanting “Pit Senyor” and even resorting to paint-smearing antics.
However, Gabuya said that they are strictly implementing the confiscation of alcoholic drinks brought by revelers in the streets, who were even seen guzzling these drinks while walking along the area.
He said that police officers assigned there had already filled four sacks of bottles of alcoholic drinks that they confiscated from the revelers.
Gabuya said that the 80-man overt security team covering the area had also been augmented by 30 more police personnel as crowd concentration had increased.
As of 5 p.m., Gabuya said that they had recorded five persons reporting losing their cell phones while seven others reported losing their wallets, which, however, had no cash.
Gabuya said that they would continue to monitor the area until 5 a.m. and employ crowd control measures when needed.
Party
A party hosted by one of the local FM stations started at the area near the corner of J. Osmeña and Aboitiz at around 3 p.m.
However, Gabuya said that since it is being conducted on a private property, they are only overseeing the peace and order situation of the event.
“Private kuan man ni (The area is a private property),” he said.
“Ang ato lang diha, wala’y kagubot. As long as smooth lang ang dagan sa mga tawo, okay ra. Fiesta man ron, atong i-tolerate ang kalipay sa mga tawo basta wala’y mga gubot (We will just make sure that nothing untoward happens, and as long as the flow of people in the area is smooth, we are okay with that. It’s fiesta day so we will tolerate people celebrating as long as they will not cause any trouble at all),” he said.
He said that no violent incidents were reported in their assigned area.
