CEBU CITY, Philippines — A station commander in Cebu City is appealing to candidates to coordinate with police if they plan to visit specific areas here.
Police Major Janelito Marquez, chief of the Labangon Police Station, made this call following the visit of the presidential aspirant Manny Pacquiao on Thursday, October 28, 2021, in barangay Tisa, wherein they were “overpowered” by the crowd.
“Permiro han-ay pa kaayo. Pero pagkanaog ni Pacquiao, niduol naman ang uban, bisan ang media gani nag dasok na. Unya nag sunod-sunod na, unya kay gamay ra kaayo ang area duol ra sa dalan, na traffic ang mga motorista,” Marquez said.
Pacquiao visited the commemorative marker of Redemptorist priest Fr. Rosaleo “Rudy” Romano in Barangay Tisa to attend the latter’s wreath-laying ceremony on Thursday.
Marquez further said that they were able to control the crowd and ordered them to disperse after three to five minutes after Pacquiao disembarked from his car. Joint efforts from the local police, village watchers, and force multipliers were crucial in their immediate control over the accident.
READ: Police say there was no major problem on traffic, crowd control in Pacquiao events
Marquez said the people who went there might have assumed that there would be something distributed during Pacquiao’s visit.
Marquez said that they were only informed of Pacquiao’s visit through the headquarters, but they weren’t able to create a concrete deployment plan for this.
This is why Marquez appealed to politicians to inform them ahead of time of their visits so that law enforcers can conduct a deployment plan that will help avoid crowding.
“Supposedly mao gyud na sya kay dili man na sya basta-basta ang ingon ana. Gam-an pa man na namo og in plan. Mga two hours before, naa na dapat atong kapulisan sa area,” Marquez said.
“Mao gyud na sya among gihangyo sa nga pulitiko kay amo man na i-survey, samot na sa mga national aspirant official,”he added.
(That’s what we appeal to the politicians since we survey them, especially national aspirant official.)
At least 200 individuals were reported who went to the said area when the senator visited.