Cops on full alert for Duterte visit

CEBU, Philippines — Police Regional Office-7 is now on red alert status for the expected visit of President Duterte today in Cebu.

Duterte is scheduled to grace the Visayas Island Cluster Conference of the League of Municipalities in the Philippines at a hotel in Cebu City.

Chief Superintendent Debold Sinas, director of PRO-7, said he will deploy additional police personnel near areas where the president is expected to have an engagement.

“Maski holiday ‘to, we have directed all of our policemen to be in the stations, except kadtong mga Muslim brothers nato, who are authorized to celebrate the Eid’l Adha,” said Sinas.

Sinas expects protesters to welcome the president but he assured that their Civil Disturbance Management (CDM) teams are always on standby.

He also assured the public that police will remain to observe maximum tolerance for all protesters.

“Kung naay mag-rally, as usual maximum tolerance ta. It’s their right. As long as maka-express sa ilang gusto ipaabot basta dili lang magkagubot,” Sinas said.

He said he also directed all police stations to conduct simultaneous checkpoints and patrolling in critical areas.

For her part, Cebu City Police Office Director Senior Supt. Royina Garma said they will be maximizing their personnel for deployment.

She said she already formed a team and ordered all station commanders under CCPO to secure areas where Muslims will celebrate the Feast of Sacrifice today.

GMA here, too

Tuburan, Cebu Mayor Aljun Diamante, president of the League of Municipalities in the Philippines-Cebu Chapter and vice president of the Visayas cluster, said that aside from Duterte, several cabinet secretaries and senators are also expected to grace the event.

Based on the program furnished by Diamante to The FREEMAN, former president and now House Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will be also present at the conference.

Other Cabinet secretaries expected are Secretary John Castriciones (Department of Agriculture), Secretary Virginia Orogo (Department of Social Welfare and Development), Secretary Guiling Mamondiong (Technical Education Skills and Development Authority), Secretary Delfin Lorenzana (Department of National Defense), Secretary Bernadette Puyat (Department of Tourism), Special Assistant to the President Bong Go, Political Adviser Francis Tolentino and Presidential Assistant for the Visayas Michael Lloyd Dino.

Senators Koko Pimentel, JV Ejercito and several congressmen are also expected to join.

The conference centers on the theme, “Kaunlaran ng Bansa, sa Bayan nagmumula.”

Osmeña not invited

Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña was not invited to the occasion but if he had the chance to tell something to the president, it is that the police have a hand in the recent spate of killings here.

“Yes, he should know (the alleged involvement of police in the series of killings),” he told reporters yesterday.

Osmeña believes that the president should be apprised of what is happening in Cebu. Earlier, he said police are involved in the killings, which “disturb” him as the chief executive of the city.

“Yes I believe so (police are behind the killings). Well, because they were shot by themselves. And this is very unusual for Cebu. I don’t like what’s happening. I am very upset, I am very disturbed,” Osmeña said.

He said since the number of unresolved killings in Metro Cebu has surged since Cebu City Police Office Director Senior Supt. Royina Garma and Police Regional Office-7 Director Chief Supt. Debold Sinas assumed their respective posts.

In fact, he has branded Cebu City as “criminal city” because the number of killings that have gone frequent. He said the city is no longer safe.

But Osmeña clarified he was not invited to today’s conference, which he thinks is intended for municipal mayors only.

The gathering will be attended by at least 369 mayors from Central, Eastern, and Western Visayas.

In a separate interview, Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella, president of Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan Cebu City Chapter, said he will attend the event after getting an invitation from the Office of the Presidential Assistant for the Visayas.

Labella could not yet confirm whether or not others city officials in his party were also invited.

“Yes, I am invited… But for others, I have to check but I believe they received invitation, a dinner with Special Assistant to the President, Christopher Lawrence ‘Bong’ Go,” said Labella. (FREEMAN)