The Walk with Jesus solemn procession on Jan. 10, 2019 was attended by more than 300,000 devotees, says the police. CDN File Photo (Tonee Despojo)
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) has put in place the necessary security measures for the “Walk with Jesus,” the first activity for the Sinulog 2023, which will happen this Jan. 5, 2022.
Police Colonel Ireneo Dalogdog, chief of CCPO, said that augmentation personnel from the Mandaue City Police Office (MCPO), Lapu-Lapu City Police Office (LCPO) and the Cebu Police Provincial Office (CPPO), would be deployed to help secure all the Sinulog activities in the city.
“Naa pa mi mga ginagmay nga adjustment. In fact, naa pod mi augmentation personnel. Dagdagan nila ang pwersa sa CCPO tungod kay we are expecting an influx of people coming in sa Cebu City,” Dalogdog said.
(We still have to make minor adjustments. In fact, we also have augmentation personnel. They will increase the security force of the CCPO because we are expecting an influx of people coming into Cebu City.)
“Wala na mi nagkuha og augmentation coming from Negros, Bohol kay medyo malayo na. Madouble ang gastos,” he added.
(We did not get an augmentation force coming from Negros or Bohol because these areas were far. The cost for us will double.)
On Jan. 4, all partner law enforcement agencies involved in Sinulog 2023 will have their sendoff ceremony at the Cebu City Sports Center.
For “Walk With Jesus,” Dalogdog said, all security personnel would be deployed two hours earlier or around 1 a.m. since the activity will start at 3 a.m. on Jan. 5.
READ: Walk with Jesus : 600 policemen to secure Sinulog 2023 activity
To date, Dalogdog said that they had 1,700 policemen to man all the activities for this Sinulog 2023, but they would expect this to increase as they had yet to finalize everything in the coming days.
Dalogdog said that on Tuesday, Jan. 3, they would have their interagency coordination meeting with Police Brigadier General Jerry Bearis, director of the Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7), for their deployment plan.
Earlier, Police Lieutenant Colonel Mark Gifter Sucalit, deputy provincial director for operations of the CPPO, said that they had 600 augmentation personnel for the Sinulog activities.
These personnel come from different police stations in the province.
Despite this, Sucalit assured the public that the augmentation from their office would not affect the security measures implemented in the province.
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