Cebu City considered “relatively peaceful”

CEBU, Philippines —  Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella has announced that the city is considered as “a relatively peaceful city.”

Labella came from a recent trip to Manila to attend the Regional Peace and Order Council (RPOC) meeting, as he is the chairman of the RPOC of Central Visayas.

“With our fight against criminality, fight against illegal drug, I am quite happy to announce that so far as Cebu City is concerned, we are considered as a relatively peaceful city, although there are certain concerns with the drug problem,” said Labella.

He said that President Duterte, during their interaction, has expressed his concerns about drugs.

“The President is alarmed of the increasing problem of not just shabu, but cocaine – the more expensive drugs.  But not here in Cebu City, although in other regions,” he said.

“The PDEA is really doing their share, their intelligence gathering so far has been effective, and I hope they will continue. And the so-called drug lords are no longer prevalent in the city,” he added.

This, after Thess Tiuzen, PDEA-7 deputy regional director, has announced that most of the known drug lords in Central Visayas had left or had changed location, according to their monitoring.

As the head of the regional peace and order council, Labella also has to look into other areas of jurisdiction, and part of this is Negros Oriental where there is a prevalent issue of insurgency.

“So far where insurgency problem is concern, Cebu City is okay but we should be prepared. But of course we should always be on guard, we should always be watchful, and we should always be vigilant,” Labella said   GAN (FREEMAN)