[av_one_full first min_height=” vertical_alignment=” space=” custom_margin=” margin=’0px’ padding=’0px’ border=” border_color=” radius=’0px’ background_color=” src=” background_position=’top left’ background_repeat=’no-repeat’ animation=”]
[av_heading heading=’‘Stringent securityduring MassKara’ ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY MAE SINGUAY
[/av_heading]
[av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=”]
BACOLOD City – Locals and tourists should expect rigid security measures during the MassKara Festival from Oct. 1 to 23.
“Security will be the top priority of this city,” Mayor Evelio Leonardia stressed yesterday.
Bacolod City Police Office (BCPO) director Senior Superintendent Flynn Dongbo met with local officials on Sept. 18 to brief them on the security plans.
“We will have very strict security measures,” Leonardia said. He asked the locals and tourists to cooperate.
In the aftermath of a fatal bombing in Davao City on Sept. 2, Leonardia called on the police to “review and update our security plans” for MassKara.
“One thing the Davao incident reminded us in Bacolod is our own security preparations for the MassKara Festival next month,” the mayor said in a statement emailed to the media on Sept. 4.
The bombing killed 14 people and injured 67.
There will be inspections at the entrances of the public plaza and around the Tourism Strip (Lacson Street), said Leonardia.
Vehicles will not be allowed to park near the festival sites or any crowded area.
“They have to be at a distance,” Leonardia stressed.
The Silver MassKara Festival Organization, the organizer, said there will be three festival sites this year: the city public plaza, the New Government Center (city hall) and the Tourism Strip.
Tighter security will entail some inconvenience, but it will be “for the good of everybody,” said the mayor.
“We should be more vigilant,” Leonardia stressed.
The BCPO will deploy more police officers to areas of convergence in the days leading to the MassKara Festival.
While it has not monitored any terror threat,its officers will have increased visibility in shopping malls, ports and bus terminals, among others, as precautionary measure, Dongbo said in a previous report.
“Evil doers will attack only if the security measures in place are weak,” Dongbo stressed.
President Rodrigo Duterte declared a state of national emergency on account of lawless violence after the Davao City blast.
It was an extraordinary presidential power that prompts the military to help the police in internal security operations./PN
[/av_textblock]
[/av_one_full]
