CCPO exec bares initial security plans for Sinulog 2022 procession

Police Lieutenant Colonel Wilbert Parilla, deputy director for operations of the Cebu City Police Office.

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Police deployment for Sinulog 2022 procession will be focused outside the parishes.

Police Lieutenant Colonel Wilbert Parilla, deputy director for operations of the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO), said that the procession would be done like a motorcade so crowd influx on the streets would not be a major concern during this activity.

This is the reason policemen of the CCPO will focus their deployment outside the parishes, whom they hope will be identified soon.

For now, Parilla said that this was what they had prepared yet as the committee assigned for this annual celebration had yet to meet with them and other concerned offices.

“Dili kaayo maka congest nig crowd. Karon, naay additional nga sa parishes, muhunong sila. So probably dinha sa nga area nga na identify kung asa muhunong anha ta mag concentrate og atoang security kay for sure mudugok gyud ang mga tawo,” he said.

(This [the event] will not congest or gather a crowd. As of now, we have additional parishes, where they will make a stop. So probably in areas where they will make a stop that is where we will concentrate our security preparations because for sure a crowd would gather there.)

“Procession will be Saturday, January 15. Mao ni ang procession but mura rag motorcade. Muadto syag Talisay then balik ngadtos Mandaue then Lapu-Lapu and Cordova and then balik. Initially, it was already approved nga gikan sa Cordova, inig balik ari na muagi sa CCLEX going back to Cebu City,” the CCPO official added.

(The procession will be on Saturday, January15. This is the procession but it will be like a motorcade. They will go to Talisay then back in Mandaue then Lapu-Lapu and Cordova and then back to the Cebu City. Initially, it was already approved that from Cordova, in going back to Cebu City, the motorcade will pass the CCLEX.)

Regarding other possible activities, Parilla said that he had no information about these because they had yet to meet with the committee assigned. 

Parilla said that since this would be an annual event that they would look forward to, drafting of deployment plan would not be a major adjustment for them since they already had a template for this and they would only adjust should there be a need to adjust.

However, he said that whatever would be agreed upon in the meeting, they would still submit this to the Inter-Agency Task Force, who would approve or not the possible activities lined up for the Sinulog 2022.

Concerning the implementation of the minimum health protocols, Parilla said that they would be meeting with the city officials to work on the possible changes on the protocols following the threat of Omicron variant.

Last December 27, Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama announced that Sinulog 2022 celebration would push through and this would come in any form.

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