CEBU, Philippines — The Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) has discouraged small-time illegal gambling activities, even in funerals.
Police Regional Office (PRO)-7 Director Albert Ignatius Ferro had earlier mentioned that one gambling table during funeral may be tolerable, however, if this expands to more tables, this would be enough grounds for illegal gambling.
CCPO Director Engelbert Soriano, for his part, has discouraged any form of illegal even in funerals, and is not even amenable with having one table.
"Dito sa Cebu City, we discourage kahit isang table lang. Wag nalang, kasi that will create controversy, saka intrigue din sa part namin," Soriano told reporters.
Soriano added that even though that gambling during funerals is considered a long tradition and culture among Filipinos, it would be effective to fully eliminate that practice.
Soriano added that they will be conducting an information drive as warning to the public before they will be implementing their intensified monitoring.
However, Soriano has put an emphasis that he will take the cue from the regional director (RD) and will implement his directives to address the problem on illegal gambling.
"I will ask our RD the parameters so we can have a uniform enforcement," he said.
Aside from this, Soriano said that they will also be closely monitoring the existing ordinance of the city that prohibits drunkenness during funerals.
He added that there have been several existing ordinance that they have to revisit to fully monitor, particularly the curfew law among minors. GAN (FREEMAN)