We hope commercial establishments and small eateries in Cebu City fully comply with City Hall’s decision to enforce anew the liquor ban during next month’s celebration of the annual Sinulog.
In fact, it would even be better if the city government complements its liquor ban with better restrictions on street parties in
order not to inconvenience the riding public and the pedestrians wishing to go home safe without having to encounter drunken revelers or worse, criminals along the way.
The liquor ban which starts on Jan. 19 at 6 a.m. and ends on Jan. 21 at 6 p.m., or Monday after the Sinulog celebration had proven to be instrumental in reducing the number of drunks along the parade route and the commercial outlets that host Sinulog parties until the wee hours of the next day.
True, there were commercial establishments that chose to be defiant and staged their street parties where liquor freely flowed and for that they were sanctioned as a reminder that the city government means business in enforcing its liquor ban.
Though there are those who supported the liquor ban the first time it was enforced in this year’s Sinulog celebration, it certainly cut into the profits of eateries, hotels and commercial establishments who had for years made money off the revelers, a rising number of whom are not even old enough to drink.
The liquor ban incidentally is also in effect inside hotels which are prohibited from serving their customers liquor even as room service.
Which makes sense since it won’t prevent drunks from running amok and causing all sorts of havoc outside of their rooms and into the already crowded streets.
That the annual celebration of Sinulog, in essence a religious observance, is associated with secular bacchanalia is something that the Church and Cebu City officials have tried to curb without much success.
Making it more difficult to curb such enthusiasm for parties is the growing number of domestic and foreign tourists who troop to Cebu City and nearby Metro Cebu areas to join in the celebration and partake of the revelry which includes drinking to
excess.
While it is the Church’s job to remind Catholics and those joining the celebration to observe sobriety and temperance, the city government’s decision to impose a liquor ban is a simple solution to ensure temperance that should have been imposed years ago.
For the public’s benefit both commercial establishments and the revelers who join the street parties for the annual Sinulog celebration should fully comply with the ban to avoid inconveniencing others and to ensure their safety especially the minors who shouldn’t be drinking in the first place.