ILOIO City – If the liquor ban is lifted, the Iloilo City Police Office (ICPO) would adjust its deployment of personnel to secure the metropolis from alcohol-fueled troublemakers. Possible areas of trouble include Smallville Complex, a popular strip of bars, restaurants and hotels dispensing alcoholic beverages in Barangay San Rafael, Mandurriao district.
The ICPO has enough policemen, according to spokesperson Police Captain Shella Mae Sangrines.
Mayor Jerry Treñas plans to repeal Executive Order (EO) 146 of his predecessor, former mayor Jose Espinosa III, that prohibited establishments from dispensing liquor beyond 2 a.m.
Prior to the issuance of EO 146, city policemen had been unable to prevent trouble from happening most especially at Smallville. Most of those involved in booze-induced trouble were inebriated youngsters.
Also, no business establishment there had been taken to task for admitting minors and selling them liquor even if the area was known to attract even under-aged clients.
“I am sure (doing away with the alcohol curfew) will boost to our tourism sector,” said Treñas, stressing that he intends to step up the promotion of Iloilo City as a MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions) destination.
Sangrines said the ICPO would reactivate police assistance desks in strategic areas such as the entrance and exit points of Smallville for better police visibility.
In issuing EO 146 in December 2017, Espinosa said he wanted to avert a breakdown of peace and order at night and early morning mostly caused by inebriated people.
Before he came out with the EO, a young man was shot dead at Smallville.
The business sector, however, was unenthusiastic of EO 146. In a previous interview, Iloilo Business Club executive director Lea Lara argued that the issue was primarily about responsible drinking. She wished that other options be explored because the city’s tourism industry may be adversely affected.
Restaurants and hotels – which almost always have bars – are among the local tourism industry’s key players.
Establishments covered by EO 146 – bars, nightclubs, restaurants – must set a time for receiving last orders from customers so as to meet the 2 a.m. curfew that stretches until 8 a.m.
But the alcohol curfew exempts the following:
* hotels/motels
* Department of Tourism-accredited resorts
* restaurants, provided they shall not sell nor serve nor dispense nor allow customers to drink within their premises from 2 a.m. until 8 a.m. on the same day, and
* convenience stores operating on a 24-hour basis, provided that such convenience stores may sell but shall not serve nor allow its customers to drink within its premises from 2 a.m. until 8 a.m. of the same day./PN
