HIGH ALERT. Devotees flock to the Basilica Minore del Sto. Niño just as Cebu is preparing for the nine-day Novena Masses leading to the Fiesta Señor on Jan. 21, 2024. PRO-7 spokesperson, Lt. Col. Gerard Ace Pelare on Friday (Jan. 5, 2024) said the police in Central Visayas are on heightened alert for the feast. (PNA photo by John Rey Saavedra)
CEBU CITY – The Philippine National Police (PNP) in Central Visayas is on heightened alert beginning Friday as devotees of the Sr. Sto. Niño swarm the century-old Basilica as the province awaits the Jan. 21 Fiesta Señor celebrations.
Lt. Col. Gerard Ace Pelare, spokesperson of the Police Regional Office (PRO)-7, said that while they monitored no security threats on Sinulog days, they have raised their alert status after Regional Director Brig. Gen. Anthony Aberin ordered to expand intelligence monitoring.
“We will be exhausting all resources of PRO-7 to make sure that we will be having a safe, secured, and most especially, solemn Sinulog celebration,” Pelare told reporters here.
The police, he said, have created a system to monitor the movement of criminals who would victimize
devotees of the Sto. Niño.
He said the PNP in Cebu is expanding its coordination with its counterpart in other regions to monitor the movements of criminal gangs who may come to Cebu during the celebration.
Meanwhile, the police reassured the public that they were on top of the crimes that happened during the holiday season.
He said investigators are yet to identify the suspect who killed a member of the LGBTQ+ who served as a jury of the Sinulog Teen, the death of a single mother in a mountain village here, and the ongoing hunt for more suspects in the daylight robbery of a jewelry store on Colon Street. (PNA)
