Senior Supt. Joel Doria, Cebu City Police Office chief, leading the inspection of Cebu City cemeteries on Nov. 1.
Every first Monday of the month of November should be the official holiday of All Saints’ Day.
Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmena said he would ask the city’s congressmen to file a bill in Congress to realize this proposal.
Osmena said that this would assure that the Kalag-Kalag (All Saints’ and All Souls’ Day celebration) would always be a long weekend.
He said this would make it a good opportunity for people to have time to pay their respects to their departed loved ones.
“I am gambling that people don’t mind. It will allow people to go back to the countryside. Once it will be institutionalized that it is a long weekend, just like Easter, everybody goes out,” he said.
He also said that aside from declaring November 1 as a holiday, every first Monday of the month of November should also be considered as a holiday because this would give them ample time to spend with their families.
“Some people work on Saturday so you can’t make it on the first Friday of November,” he added.
He said he would either ask Rep. Raul del Mar (Cebu City 1st district) or Rep. Rodrigo Abellanosa (Cebu City 2nd district) to work on the bill.
In this year’s Kalag-Kalag celebration, Osmeña said that this year was the “most organized and best managed” celebration that he had experienced.
Osmeña also lauded those who made this possible in a post in his Facebook page.
He said the Cebuanos were grateful for their diligence, thoughtfulness and vigilance for a job well done.
These included Senior Supt. Joel Doria, Cebu City Police Office chief; Councilor Dave Tumulak, deputy mayor for police matters; Francisco Ouano, City Traffic Operations chief; Garry Lao, Cebu City Office on Substance Abuse and Prevention (Cosap) chief; John Paul Gelasque of the Department of Public Services; Emergency Rescue Unit Foundation volunteers; and barangay tanods.
“On behalf of the Cebuanos, I would like to thank them, all their people and volunteers. Of course the crowd also because it was so orderly, peaceful,” he added.
He also said the deployment and shifting of security personnel were so detailed that there were no recorded untoward incident.
Meanwhile, police officers assigned to secure the terminals and cemeteries would be allowed to return to their assigned stations since their deployment would only be until November 2.
However, Senior Supt. Renato Dugan, Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7) Police Community Relations (PCR) chief, said they would remain on full alert status until such time that Camp Crame would issue an order to lift this.
Dugan also said that there would also still be police officers securing the terminals especially since those from the provinces would be expected to return to Cebu City today and in the next few days.
Rudolph Alain Benolirao, Philippine Coast Guard Cebu officer in charge, told Cebu Daily News that they are still on full alert until November 6.
Dugan also said that the All Saints’ and All Souls’ Days celebration was generally peaceful, which he attributed to the tight security implemented by police, and their collaboration with local government units.