Police Lieutenant Colonel Clark Arriola, chief of the Intelligence Unit of the Cebu City Police Office, says they will intensify their operations against the use of firecrackers in Cebu City. | Pegeen Maisie Sararaña
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Cebu City policemen will intensify their operations against the use of firecrackers after they confiscated over a P100,000 worth of firecrackers in Cebu City on Christmas Day.
Police Lieutenant Colonel Clark Arriola, chief of the Intelligence Unit of the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO), said that these confiscated items were currently being held at the respective police stations and would later be consolidated.
Arriola said that they would continue their operations against firecracker use as they prepare for the New Year’s celebrations as well.
For their security assessment on Christmas Day, Arriola said that it was generally peaceful as law enforcement officers were being deployed to interior portions of the city.
He also said that they did not record any firecracker-related injuries and major crime incidents on December 25.
He attributed this to their deployment efforts and the help of the force multipliers.
With the New Year drawing near, Arriola said they were anticipating firecracker-related incidents in the coming days.
Earlier, Senior Fire Officer (SFO1) Wendell Villanueva, information officer of the Cebu City Fire Office (CCFO) expressed concerns on minors who use firecrackers in their respective villages.
With this, Villanueva appealed to parents to look after their children and make sure that they would not engage in using firecrackers to avoid accidents.
For his part, Arriola said that this concern should be a shared responsibility but he also would prefer that looking after these children should no longer be included in their functions.
“Ang kanang mga bata, dili na unta function sa pulis nga mamadlong pa. Unta, parents, ilang silingan, ilang mga uncle, tito mubadlong pod. Kay if pati pagbadlong sa bata is trabaho sa pulis, dako na kaayog mawala nga function like police visibility. Ang mga crimes nga unta nga angay i attend sa mga pulis, mabutang pa nuon sa pagbantay sa mga bata nato,” Arriola further said.
([Looking after] these children, should not be a function of the police. The parents, neighbors, their uncles, titos should be the one to watch over them and call their attention if they are doing bad things. Because if looking after these children will still be the job of the police, then it would affect the function of the police like police visibility. The police, whose job would be to prevent crimes would instead now be focused on looking after this children.)
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