Jasmin Uy Labacara (The Freeman) Updated January 18, 2010 12:00 AM
CEBU, Philippines - Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal is calling on the multitudes who participated during the last day of the Fiesta Señor to pray for the victims of the earthquake in Haiti.
This as police estimated the crowd who witnessed the festivities of the last day at almost 8 million.
Vidal made the call to the thousands of devotees who attended the Mass at the Basilica del Sto. Niño yesterday.
“Let us remain faithful in our love of God and in each other and let us reach out to other people afflicted with disasters,” Vidal said in his homily. Yesterday’s Mass was also offered for the victims of the earthquake in Haiti.
Tens of thousands are feared dead after a 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit Haiti on Tuesday, knocking down buildings and power lines and inflicting new misery on the Western Hemisphere’s poorest nation.
Despite the gloomy weather, thousands of devotees flocked to the Basilica to attend mass as early as 4 a.m.
Balloons carrying petitions were sent into the air during the singing of the “Batobalani sa Gugma,” a yearly tradition of the Cebuanos.
Meanwhile, police estimated around 8 million joined the festivities yesterday.
Police Regional Office-7 chief Chief Supt. Lani-O Nerez made the estimate after personally walking the parade route from 8 a.m. starting from the PRO-7 headquarters and arriving back there at noon.
Nerez also went to the Cebu City Police Office along Gorordo Ave. to check the CCTV cameras installed at the Operations Section.
Through the cameras, the police can monitor the activities of the crowd and the contingents at Abellana Sports Complex, barangay Carreta, Mango Ave., and at Fuente Osmeña, which are considered to be critical areas.
Prior to this inspection, as early as 7 a.m., Nerez went to Fuente Osmeña to check the people including the contingents who were already starting to flock the area.
On the way back to the headquarters, they saw a boy seemingly lost. They took the child to the headquarters and fed him. He later walked home.
A 10-year-old boy from Opon, Lapi-lapu City also got lost after losing sight of his uncle due to the thick crowd. A six-year-old girl also got lost but was later reunited with her parents.
Sr. Supt. Patrocinio Comendador, director of CCPO, said that yesterday’s celebration was generally peaceful. There were pickpocket incidents but no shooting or stabbing incidents reported.
Comendador estimated the crowd in the carousel route to have reached to 3.5 to 4 million at the start, which later swelled up to 8 million as the festivities wore on.
If police estimates are correct one can say the crowd numbers roughly equal to the entire population of Cebu Province.
According to the National Statistics Office, there are now 3.85 million people in Cebu Province, based on the 2007 census.
But excluding population figures for the highly-urbanized cities of Cebu, Lapu-Lapu and Mandaue, Cebu Province’s population is 2,439,065 or a growth of only 1.68 percent.
The police said there were a lot of local and foreign tourists who came for the occasion yesterday.
Nerez said he will deploy another set of the policemen at night especially from the Mobile Patrol Group to guard the party-filled streets.
In his inspection, Nerez observed that there was good deployment of police personnel in the different sectors of the city where the parade passed, including the soldiers, medical groups, communicators/radio groups, and other private sectors.
At least eight people were victimized by pickpockets in crowded roads in the city.
The first to report to Fuente Police, whose jurisdiction was the most critical as most of the people gathered at the Fuente Rotunda, was American Tommy Gene Siler, 70.
Siler said along Mango Ave. past 10 a.m. an unidentified woman tried to steal his wallet. He was able to stop her but later realized that his passport was no longer in his pocket.
Less than an hour later, Victor Chua, 58, of barangay Guadalupe, reported to the police that an unidentified woman also took his cellphone while he was walking near Mercury Drug in Fuente Rotunda.
Ten minutes later, Georg Hellstern, 44, an Austrian, reported that he was about to cross the street when an unidentified person took his wallet from his pocket containing P15,000 cash and various cards.
Around noon, Fidel Torres, 61, of Marilao, Bulacan was walking along Osmeña Blvd. in barangay Sambag II when unidentified men stole his wallet, with P4,500 and credit cards, from his back pocket.
While taking videos for the Sinulog along the same boulevard, Rolando Mercader, 72, of Basak-Pardo, reportedly lost his wallet containing P600 and various cards 30 minutes later.
Another foreigner, Canadian Andre Peter Brunger, 51, reportedly lost his wallet containing P1,500 cash and cards.
In the last two incidents, a 16-year-old and a 40-year-old vendor were arrested for stealing a 17-year-old and a 19-year old girl’s cellular phones, respectively.
The 16-year-old suspect was arrested after identified by witnesses, while Juanita Cabahug, of Consolacion town, was also detained after allegedly picking up the cellular phone of Katherine Kate Diaz after she dropped it.
Cabahug allegedly immediately passed the phone to his 14-year-old son and refused to give it back to Diaz.
Sr. Insp. Michael Anthony Bastes, chief of Theft and Robbery Section of the CCPO, disclosed that they have arrested at least five robbers yesterday, two from Manila, one from Bacolod, and another two from Tabunok, Talisay City.
Two choppers were in the air yesterday, one from the ABS-CBN which covered the big event, and another from the RBC that spread petals. Both choppers abided by the standard altitude which is 1,000 meters from the ground. — Jasmin U. Lacno and Niña G. Sumacot/BRP (THE FREEMAN)
CEBU, Philippines - Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal is calling on the multitudes who participated during the last day of the Fiesta Señor to pray for the victims of the earthquake in Haiti.
This as police estimated the crowd who witnessed the festivities of the last day at almost 8 million.
Vidal made the call to the thousands of devotees who attended the Mass at the Basilica del Sto. Niño yesterday.
“Let us remain faithful in our love of God and in each other and let us reach out to other people afflicted with disasters,” Vidal said in his homily. Yesterday’s Mass was also offered for the victims of the earthquake in Haiti.
Tens of thousands are feared dead after a 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit Haiti on Tuesday, knocking down buildings and power lines and inflicting new misery on the Western Hemisphere’s poorest nation.
Despite the gloomy weather, thousands of devotees flocked to the Basilica to attend mass as early as 4 a.m.
Balloons carrying petitions were sent into the air during the singing of the “Batobalani sa Gugma,” a yearly tradition of the Cebuanos.
Meanwhile, police estimated around 8 million joined the festivities yesterday.
Police Regional Office-7 chief Chief Supt. Lani-O Nerez made the estimate after personally walking the parade route from 8 a.m. starting from the PRO-7 headquarters and arriving back there at noon.
Nerez also went to the Cebu City Police Office along Gorordo Ave. to check the CCTV cameras installed at the Operations Section.
Through the cameras, the police can monitor the activities of the crowd and the contingents at Abellana Sports Complex, barangay Carreta, Mango Ave., and at Fuente Osmeña, which are considered to be critical areas.
Prior to this inspection, as early as 7 a.m., Nerez went to Fuente Osmeña to check the people including the contingents who were already starting to flock the area.
On the way back to the headquarters, they saw a boy seemingly lost. They took the child to the headquarters and fed him. He later walked home.
A 10-year-old boy from Opon, Lapi-lapu City also got lost after losing sight of his uncle due to the thick crowd. A six-year-old girl also got lost but was later reunited with her parents.
Sr. Supt. Patrocinio Comendador, director of CCPO, said that yesterday’s celebration was generally peaceful. There were pickpocket incidents but no shooting or stabbing incidents reported.
Comendador estimated the crowd in the carousel route to have reached to 3.5 to 4 million at the start, which later swelled up to 8 million as the festivities wore on.
If police estimates are correct one can say the crowd numbers roughly equal to the entire population of Cebu Province.
According to the National Statistics Office, there are now 3.85 million people in Cebu Province, based on the 2007 census.
But excluding population figures for the highly-urbanized cities of Cebu, Lapu-Lapu and Mandaue, Cebu Province’s population is 2,439,065 or a growth of only 1.68 percent.
The police said there were a lot of local and foreign tourists who came for the occasion yesterday.
Nerez said he will deploy another set of the policemen at night especially from the Mobile Patrol Group to guard the party-filled streets.
In his inspection, Nerez observed that there was good deployment of police personnel in the different sectors of the city where the parade passed, including the soldiers, medical groups, communicators/radio groups, and other private sectors.
At least eight people were victimized by pickpockets in crowded roads in the city.
The first to report to Fuente Police, whose jurisdiction was the most critical as most of the people gathered at the Fuente Rotunda, was American Tommy Gene Siler, 70.
Siler said along Mango Ave. past 10 a.m. an unidentified woman tried to steal his wallet. He was able to stop her but later realized that his passport was no longer in his pocket.
Less than an hour later, Victor Chua, 58, of barangay Guadalupe, reported to the police that an unidentified woman also took his cellphone while he was walking near Mercury Drug in Fuente Rotunda.
Ten minutes later, Georg Hellstern, 44, an Austrian, reported that he was about to cross the street when an unidentified person took his wallet from his pocket containing P15,000 cash and various cards.
Around noon, Fidel Torres, 61, of Marilao, Bulacan was walking along Osmeña Blvd. in barangay Sambag II when unidentified men stole his wallet, with P4,500 and credit cards, from his back pocket.
While taking videos for the Sinulog along the same boulevard, Rolando Mercader, 72, of Basak-Pardo, reportedly lost his wallet containing P600 and various cards 30 minutes later.
Another foreigner, Canadian Andre Peter Brunger, 51, reportedly lost his wallet containing P1,500 cash and cards.
In the last two incidents, a 16-year-old and a 40-year-old vendor were arrested for stealing a 17-year-old and a 19-year old girl’s cellular phones, respectively.
The 16-year-old suspect was arrested after identified by witnesses, while Juanita Cabahug, of Consolacion town, was also detained after allegedly picking up the cellular phone of Katherine Kate Diaz after she dropped it.
Cabahug allegedly immediately passed the phone to his 14-year-old son and refused to give it back to Diaz.
Sr. Insp. Michael Anthony Bastes, chief of Theft and Robbery Section of the CCPO, disclosed that they have arrested at least five robbers yesterday, two from Manila, one from Bacolod, and another two from Tabunok, Talisay City.
Two choppers were in the air yesterday, one from the ABS-CBN which covered the big event, and another from the RBC that spread petals. Both choppers abided by the standard altitude which is 1,000 meters from the ground. — Jasmin U. Lacno and Niña G. Sumacot/BRP (THE FREEMAN)
0 comments:
Post a Comment