Councilor calls for crowd surge prevention measure ahead of Sinulog in 2023
Cebu City Councilor Rey Gealon
CEBU CITY, Philippines — After the Halloween stampede in Itaewon, South Korea, which claimed hundreds of lives last month, a councilor in Cebu City is proposing a measure to help prevent the same incident from occurring in the city.
Emergency officials said that at least 149 people died in a crush last Oct. 29, 2022, as a large group of people celebrating Halloween rushed into an alley in Seoul, South Korea.
READ: At least 149 killed in stampede at Halloween event in South Korea
To avoid this in Cebu City, Councilor Rey Gealon filed before the City Council last Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2022, a resolution that would urge the Office of the Mayor to direct the Cebu City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (CCDRRMO) to conduct research and study on crowd surges.
His resolution also called on the Office of the Mayor to direct the CCDRRMO to design disaster risk reduction and management of crowd surges and to organize and conduct training, orientation, and knowledge management activities to educate city residents on how to react and protect themselves during a crowd surge.
Furthermore, it also encourages the Department of Education (DepEd) and Commission on Higher Education (Ched) to undertake crowd surge drills in schools.
The council is set to take action on this resolution during its regular session next week.
The councilor deemed these actions important, especially since the return of the physical and religious activities in line with the 458th Fiesta Señor and the Sinulog Festival 2023 scheduled in January are expected to draw large crowds, after a two-year hiatus.
Moreover, numerous events like rallies, sports events, rock concerts and the like attract young people especially to the popular Sinulog street parties and concerts.
“There is a need to institute measures to prevent such a tragedy like the Seoul Halloween crowd surge from happening in the City of Cebu by preparing the youth against the risks of crowd surges,” Gealon said in his resolution.
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